


Back In The House

by Bat_Crap_Crazy



Category: Big Brother RPF
Genre: AU Big Brother, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-09-28 12:12:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 68,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10100042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bat_Crap_Crazy/pseuds/Bat_Crap_Crazy
Summary: It's Big Brother 20!  Time to go "Back In The House"!





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> (Some familiar names, but used fictitiously)

            “Its summertime, America, and you know what that means! It’s time for ‘Big Brother’!” Julie Chen announced from the stage. She was wearing a floor-length, black evening gown that sparkled with each movement.

            “In honor of our 20th season on the air, the game has changed! This season promises to be the biggest and most exciting season ever!” She paused and turned to face a different camera. “As you are aware, ‘Big Brother’ is often dominated by alliances. But even inside these alliances, duos often emerge. ‘Big Brother’ has gathered together some of the most loved, most hated, and most talked about duos from recent seasons and we have bought them back. Welcome to ‘Big Brother 20, Back in the House’!” The theme music began to play and the audience applauded wildly.

            The announcer showed the interior of the house and explained how the house had been changed from earlier seasons. The theme of the house was “Tea for Two, aka Tempest in a Teapot”.

            After the quick visual tour, the cameras came back to Julie. “As you can see, the house has been redesigned to accommodate our duos. Also, many of the rules of the game have changed. We will discuss these changes, but first…let’s meet our duos! Each team has been sequestered and has no idea who the other teams may be. Let’s welcome back our first team, he gave her information and she called the shots which ultimately allowed him to win the season! Amanda Zuckerman and Andy Herren from BB15, playing as Team Amandy!”

            Julie spoke to them for a brief time, and then instructed them to enter the house. After they had cleared the stage and the door was closed behind them, Julie announced the next team. “From ‘Big Brother Over the Top’ we have Shelby Stockton and Alex Willet, playing as Team Ballsmashers!”

            After their greeting, where Julie joked with them about the name they had given themselves during their season, Team Ballsmashers entered through the door into the ‘Big Brother’ house. A monitor was unveiled so that the live audience could watch what was happening inside the house as the teams met.

            Production called for a commercial break. Julie and the audience watched the two teams inside the house checking it out. Soon the break ended and Julie was back in front of the camera.

            “One left very early in the season, but one lasted almost to the end, but while inside the house they formed a quick bond. From BB17, Team Bro Code, Austin Matelson and Jace Agolli!”

            After their spot with Julie, they entered the house. “Next we have a team where both members have played ‘Big Brother’, just not on the same season. Team Calafiore! Cody came in at second-place on BB16, and his brother Paulie was on BB18!” The brothers entered the stage. Julie joked with them and asked them if they thought they would be able to get along together in one house. The audience laughed loudly at this, as most people were aware that the Calafiore brothers already lived together.

            After their exit, Julie introduced the next duo. “They formed a secret alliance that lasted only a few days. Let’s hope they can work together longer this time! Donny Thompson and Devin Shepard from BB16, Team Double D!”

            As Julie spoke to them, Devin did most of the talking, sometimes even while Julie was speaking, and Donny looked like he wished he could disappear. Soon they were allowed to enter into the house.

            “They formed a ‘friendship’ on BB18 that seemed full of goodbyes—and hellos, as one member was evicted three times, but battled his way back in twice, and the other one came in second place! Team Friendship, Victor Arroyo and Paul Abrahamian!” Victor and Paul came onto the stage, and Paul was wearing a child’s swimming floatation device around his middle. “It looks like Pablo is joining them!”

            Julie joked with them and told them that it was a game of duos, so Pablo was going to have to sit out during the comps. When they exited the stage and entered through the door into the house, production called for another commercial break.

            As the commercial ended, Julie walked to her mark. “He has been in the house twice, she has only been in once, but on BB18 they met and developed a showmance. Did this showmance blossom into a romance, or did it become a no-mance? We’re about to find out. James Huling and Natalie Negrotti, Team Jatalie!”

            James and Natalie came onto the stage and assured everyone that they were very happy, but had decided to just remain friends. They entered into the house together.

            “Our next duo formed during BBOTT where he won the second place title, and he was also on BB17. Team Misfits, Jason Roy and Danielle Lickey!” When they entered the stage, Julie was quick to announce that the public had named them ‘The Misfits’ although their alliance name had actually been ‘Late Night Jamboree’. Production had given them the choice of which name to use and they had elected to use ‘Team Misfits’. Jason agreed, saying it wouldn’t be right to use ‘Late Night Jamboree’ without Kryssie, Justin, and Neeley there with them. Danielle added, “And Whitney, too!”. Julie jokingly chided them for giving shout-outs. They were laughing as they entered the house.

            “Our next duo has actually worked as a team before. They were in a secret alliance, arranged by ‘Big Brother’, but they have had a strong bond since before they were born! BB17’s twin twist, Team Nolan, Liz and Julia! Liz was runner-up on their season.” The two women came out and spoke with Julie about what had been going on in their lives since their season ended. After they walked from the stage and into the house, Julie announced the next duo.

            “On different social media sites, this next duo have been crowded the queens of ‘Big Brother’ so it seemed only right that we make that their team name. Zakiyah Everette and DaVonne Rogers, Team Queens! DaVonne was on BB17 and 18 and met Zakiyah during BB18.”

            The interview with the two women felt strained and they did not look at one another. After their mini-interview, they walked through the door together but did not seem to acknowledge the other’s presence.

            Production cut to another commercial break. Julie commented to the audience that it didn’t seem like Team Queens were on the best of terms. The audience laughed. After the break, Julie announced that there were three more duos yet to meet.

            “We have already welcomed two duos that were comprised of siblings. Now, let’s welcome our third sibling duo! From BB17 Vanessa Rousso, and from BB18 Tiffany Rousso, playing for—what else?—Team Rousso!”

            The sisters were very excited so their interview went very well. It was a welcome relief, especially after the tense conversation with Team Queens. They happily made their way through the door, and into the ‘Big Brother’ house.

            “On BB19, we watched these two meet and instantly bond, based upon what has been described as, ‘their peppy, optimistic view of life’, a direct quote from their fellow houseguests last year. Team Sorority, Stella Marcus and Cindi Stillwater.”

            The two blonde girls, who were dressed in matching yellow sweaters, pranced out on the stage. They were bubbly and giggled through most of their interview with Julie. Julie smiled at their retreating backs as they bounded off the stage and though the door. Julie took a deep breath and turned to a different camera.

            “And last, but certainly not least…we met them on BB16 and watched their relationship grow tighter every day. Zach Rance and Frankie Grande, Team Zankie!”

            The men walked onto the stage. Frankie wore his signature blue cap, and Zach wore a pink one that was identical to the one that Victoria had shredded at the end of BB16.

            “So guys, tell me…the two of you were very tight during your season, but then Frankie backdoored you Zach. How did that affect your relationship after the game ended?”

            “It had no effect at all Julie. It was just a game move,” Zach answered. “We have stayed close ever since the game ended.”

            “Yes,” Frankie agreed. “We talk all the time.”

            Julie said she was glad to hear it and told them it was their turn to join the others inside the house. As they passed through the outer door, but before they reached the inner door to the house, Frankie said, “You lied pretty good back there. I doubt if anyone noticed.”

            “Thanks. You too.” Zach said as he opened the inner door. He stepped aside to allow Frankie to enter ahead of him. “I have to make it look real,” he whispered, “I always held the door for you.” Frankie nodded and walked through the door.

            Before they had much of a chance to greet anyone, they could hear Julie’s voice. “Attention Houseguests! Could you all gather in the living room for an announcement?”

            The Houseguests all quickly made it to the living room, and saw that champagne and glasses were on the coffee table between the two massive couches.

            Julie spoke from the monitor, “This year the game has changed. You and your teammate will be considered as one person. Keep one thing in mind at all times: There is no ‘I’ in team! Goodnight, Houseguests!”

            The monitor went dark. “Well, this is certainly going to be a fun summer,” Paulie said, as he looked around at some of the other houseguests.

            “Then let’s start it off right!” Austin said as he popped the cork on one of the bottles and began to pour.

            After the glasses were all poured and handed out, Jace proposed the toast: “Here’s to being ‘Back in the House’!” They all clicked glasses and cheered.

            The camera went back to Julie. “How will working together as a team affect the Houseguests as the summer wears on? And how will it change the game? Only time will tell. Tune in Tuesday night to see which team will become the first HOH of the summer. I’m Julie Chen, Goodnight America!” The camera cut away and went back inside the house and showed the Houseguests still drinking their glasses of champagne, talking together in small groups. The theme music began to play and the credits rolled across the screen.

 


	2. Chapter Two

            After Julie’s sign off, Frankie excused himself from the group he was talking to and set out to explore the house. Everything had been changed for this season, and it made sense since there were twenty-six people that had been casted. The living room where they all had been was set up similar to the previous seasons, except everything was on a much larger scale. Instead of the two nomination chairs that usually headed the couches, there were two loveseats. The couches themselves were enormous. Each one could easily seat at least twelve people, with room to spare. There were two large, round dining tables, and the kitchen looked like one that would service a restaurant. He walked past what used to be the beehive room without pausing to look in because he felt the need to empty his nearly bursting bladder, so he headed directly to the bathroom. He stopped short in the doorway when he spotted the changes. There were now two toilet stalls and four showers. He appreciated that there were more facilities to use, but he wondered if they had removed the signature door. Every year it had been a tradition to find some way to leave your name on the door, and that was no easy task. There were no writing implements, and sharp objects with which to carve were watched very closely by production. However, every year, players managed to find a way. Most of all the previous players’ names had been there, including Frankie’s own. He opened one of the stalls and examined it carefully. There wasn’t anything on the door or the walls. He walked to the other one and opened the door. Aside from the new names that had been added, it looked the same. Frankie breathed a sigh of relief and decided that this was the one he would use.

            After he finished he walked out of the stall to find Zach sitting on one of the couches against the wall. Frankie didn’t speak to him, but walked over to the sink and washed his hands.

            “Have you checked out everything yet?” Zach asked, watching the mirror to see Frankie’s face.

            “No,” Frankie answered, looking down at his hands to avoid meeting Zach’s gaze in the mirror.

            “Me either. I was waiting for you. Although Cody told me there is only one bedroom this year. We all have to share it.”

            “Oh. Sounds like the CBB house.” Frankie said, reaching for a towel.

            Zach nodded, “That’s what I thought when he told me. What was it like to share a bedroom with everybody?”

            “It sucked. And we didn’t have nearly as many people in there as we do here.”

            Zach nodded, “I figured. I hope nobody is a snorer.”

            Frankie walked past him and out the door. Zach jumped up and followed him. Frankie stopped at the door that lead to what had been the beehive room and Zach almost collided into him.

            “What are you doing,” Frankie hissed.

            “I told you; I waited for you. I figured we should explore together, ya know, because we are on the same team,” Zach hurriedly explained.

            Frankie took a deep breath and nodded. He opened the door and they entered. The room’s walls were a dull pink and there were chintz covers on the furniture in the room. White doilies were on the tables, under vases of fake pink roses. There were framed pictures of kittens all over the walls.

            “It looks like they had Dolores Umbridge decorate for them,” Frankie mumbled, more to himself than to Zach.

            “Whose she?” Zach asked.

            Frankie scoffed, and turned to face him with a frown. “I thought you said you read the Harry Potter books?”

            “I did. I just don’t memorize them the way you do. Oh, wait! She was the bitch that took over the school, right? Okay, I get it now. You don’t like this room, right?”

            “Uh, yes Rose! It’s horrible!” Frankie said, and he walked out of the room.

            Zach followed him, biting back a grin. Frankie had called him “Rose”. It had been such a long time since Frankie had even spoken to him at all and even longer since he had called him “Rose”. He realized that Frankie probably hadn’t even noticed it, but Zach had. It made him feel as if the years since the last time they were in the house had melted away. Along with all the bad stuff they had gone through.

            They walked past the milling groups of people and made their way to the bedroom. Cody had told Zach the truth. There was only one bedroom this year, and it was huge. Frankie did a quick mental count and saw that there were thirteen beds. Six along each of the long walls, and one on the short wall at the far end of the room. Each of the beds had a name plaque on the foot of the bed with the team’s name on it. Frankie located the “Team Zankie” bed, the last bed in the row along the left wall.

            “Looks like we have to share,” Zach announced.

            Frankie shrugged, “I can deal with it if you can.” He examined the bedroom more carefully and realized that the “Umbridge” effect was here too. The pillows on the beds all had white pillow shams that were trimmed with lace. The beds all had skirts that matched the pillows, and were topped with what appeared to be handmade chintz-patterned quilts. Each team’s quilt was different colors. Frankie turned to look closer at theirs. It was pink and blue. He shook his head.

            “They are really pushing this Zankie shit on us,” he said, as he removed his blue hat and hung it on the bedpost. “First they insist we wear the hats and now our quilt.”

            Zach reached up and adjusted his own hat more firmly on his head. “I like it,” he stated.

            Frankie scoffed, “Fine. The hats are okay, but this place is hideous. It looks like a cross between an old folk’s home and a bad Bed and Breakfast.”

            Zach looked around more carefully. “Yeah! You’re right, it does! It reminds me of that place we stayed at when we went skiing! Do you remember?” As soon as he asked the question, he could tell by the way Frankie’s back and shoulders instantly tensed that he shouldn’t have. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

            Frankie shook his head in annoyance. “Really, Zach? I’m not here to stroll down memory lane with you; I am here to play ‘Big Brother’. I would prefer if we kept the past in the past where it belongs and focus on the here and now.”

            Zach nodded. “Let’s start over okay? Clean slate.” He extended his hand, “Hi! I’m Zach Rance, and you are…?”

            Frankie reluctantly put his hand in Zach’s and shook it, “Frankie Grande.”

            Zach smiled, “Team Zankie. We’ve got this. I swear to you I will do everything possible to get us to the end. You can count on me.”

            Frankie nodded and pulled his hand back. “Good to know.”

            They heard a sudden commotion in the hall and Cody poked his head around the corner. “Hey guys? They have brought in our luggage.”

            They joined the others in the hallway outside the storage room. Once there was a spot open, Zach dashed in. “I’ll get yours too, Frankie!” he called over his shoulder.

            Cody nudged Frankie with his shoulder. Frankie turned to meet his gaze. “So, how’s it going?” he asked, tilting his head in the area where Zach had been.

            “Awkward. Just imagine how you would feel if you had to be on a team and sleep in the same bed with your ex.” Frankie answered.

            “Eesh! No thanks!” Cody said with a shudder.

            “Exactly. Although, he seems to be oblivious to it. It’s like he has bought into all the lies that we have told people. ‘We are best friends!’ and ‘We talk all the time’,” Frankie said, making air quotes.

            “Maybe he is just a good actor,” Cody suggested.

            “That’s the weird part about it. I used to be able to read him like a book. I knew every thought he had, as soon as he had it. But now, I can’t. He looks sincere, but I know he isn’t.”

            “As soon as they open up the backyard, me and Paulie will get him to play pool with us. That will give you a chance to relax. Okay?” Cody offered.

            Frankie leaned his head on Cody’s shoulder, “If you do that, I will be your best friend forever.”

            Cody smiled, slung his arm around Frankie and pulled him into a side hug, “We already are BFFs!”

            Zach came out of the storage room, rolling two huge suitcases behind him. His eyes flashed darkly for a millisecond, so quickly that Frankie wasn’t sure he really saw what he thought, but then Zach smiled. “Sorry guys, it’s Team Zankie, not Team Frody,” then he smiled at Frankie, “I’m kidding, you can stop scowling at me now. Look! I have your suitcase! Maybe we should find some drawers before everyone else grabs them.”

            Zach was right about that because already people were claiming the available spaces. They managed to find a few drawers that were still open. Zach was finished unpacking very quickly because he really didn’t care about it, as long as he could get the drawers closed all the way after he put his things in them, he was fine. Frankie took his time, arranging things carefully, in the order he would need them. To Frankie’s chagrin, Zach stood next to him, watching as he was unpacking and arranging things.

            Suddenly Big Brother called Cindi to the Diary Room. Everyone applauded her for being the first of the season. She giggled and bowed on her way to the DR.

            “What do you think of her?” Zach asked quietly.

            “I think she is very pretty and seems to be sweet. I didn’t watch her season though, so I’m not sure how good of a player she is,” Frankie answered, just as quietly.

            Zach was shocked. “You didn’t watch her season? I thought you were addicted to the show and never missed an episode!”

            Frankie shrugged. “I was busy last year. I wasn’t sitting home watching TV.”

            Zach straightened his back, “Yeah, I’m sure you weren’t”, and then he turned and walked away.

            Frankie breathed a sigh of relief and went back to arranging his clothes in his drawers.

            He was finished and sitting in the living room, talking to Victor when Cindi returned from the DR.

            “Would everyone please gather in the living room?” She called. She was carrying a stack of large envelopes.

            People came from all corners of the house and sat on the sofas. Nobody was brave enough to sit on the loveseats yet. Frankie smiled at their collective superstition. He knew in time those seats would be treated like any other pieces of furniture, but for now, they represented evictions.

            “Oh, I’m sorry! I forgot to say that I need all the teams to sit next to each other. Once you are in the right order, I will give you your team envelope, but don’t open them. Big Brother will tell us what to do.”

            People moved around, trading seats, until finally everyone was sitting next to the proper person. Cindi moved around the couches, passing out the envelopes. She sat down next to Stella. The room was silent as they waited for instructions.

            After a while, Big Brother began to speak. The voice told them that inside the large envelope were two smaller envelopes. They were to open the large envelope and each teammate was to get one small envelope. After the teams had done as they were instructed, Big Brother told them to open their envelopes. Frankie opened his and saw the word “Odd” written on it. He peeked at Zach’s and saw his had the word “Even” on it. Frankie felt certain he knew what was coming next.

            Big Brother had them go around the room and call out what their card said. Then the voice explained that the Odds would be in charge of competing for the odd weeks, and the Evens would play on the even weeks. For voting and nominating, if the teammates could not come to an agreement, the player whose week it was would be the one to make the decision. After that business was taken care of, Big Brother went on to explain the rules and safety instructions. The voice then announced that in addition to the $500,000, the winner would also receive a trip for two to the Bahamas, and a 2018 Chevy Camaro. The Houseguests were ecstatic. Usually it was just the cash prize, but the celebration of twenty seasons on television drew in big sponsors.

            Big Brother announced that there was a special meal waiting for them in the storage room, and wished them a pleasant evening. The rest of the early evening passed in an exciting blur of food, alcohol, and numerous conversations going on all at once.

            At one point in the festivities, Victor shouted over the noise and asked for a show of hands of those who were single—he laughingly stated he didn’t want to waste his time flirting with anyone who was taken. Numerous hands shot up, including Frankie’s, much to the surprise of more than a few of the Houseguests.

            The backyard was opened, and the Houseguests rushed out of it like children released from school for recess. Frankie mingled, taking time to chat with everyone. Cody was being true to his word about keeping Zach occupied at the pool table, so when Frankie found the chance, he quietly returned inside the house. He went to the bedroom and collected his make-up bag and took it to his bed. He removed the contents of the bag, and moved the containers around in ever-changing patterns. He would study a given pattern for a bit, with a frown on his brow, and then move the pieces again. He suddenly became aware that someone was watching him. He looked up and saw Zach in the doorway.

            “I’m sorry. I noticed you weren’t outside and I came to see if you were okay. Do you want to be alone?”

            “Yes. Wait! No. This might go better with two brains instead of one.” Frankie answered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

            Zach came over and sat carefully on the foot of the bed, staring at Frankie’s make-up containers, trying to understand what had fascinated Frankie so much.

            “When Big Brother was talking this evening, what did you hear him say about the prizes?”

            Zach smiled and said, “The winner will get $500,000, a trip for two to the Bahamas, and a new Camaro.”

            Frankie nodded. “Say it again.”

            Zach gave a small frown, but did as he was told. Frankie nodded again. “One more time, please.”

            Zach shrugged, “I don’t get this. It’s not going to change. The winner…”

            “Stop!” Frankie said. “What did you just say?”

            “The winner? I don’t get…Oh shit! He didn’t say ‘the winning team will share’, he said ‘the winner will receive’. Do you think they are going to split us up?”

            Frankie compressed his lips and nodded. “I do. I hope no one else caught that or else we could be one of the first targets. Why wait and pick people off one-by-one, when you can take down two at a time? Whoever is HOH will probably be gunning for the bigger players right from the start. We might be considered bigger players. It’s vital that you keep this information between the two of us, just in case no one else caught it.”

            “Frankie! We’re a team! I promised you that I would do everything it takes to get us to the end. I’m not going to tell anyone.”

            “You are going to be tempted to tell Amanda, and probably Cody. I know you. But you can’t. If they figure it out on their own that’s one thing, but we can’t give them the information. We will be cutting our own throats.”

            “I won’t tell a soul, but I don’t understand why we can’t tell Cody! I assumed we would be in an alliance with him and Paulie.”

            Frankie sighed and rolled his head, attempting to loosen the tension in his neck. “We probably will, but remember…blood is thicker than water. You know how loyal Cody was to Derrick; imagine how loyal he will be to his own brother! We have to develop that kind of loyalty between us, if we are to have any chance at all.”

            “I will be loyal; I’ll prove it to you. So, what’s with the make-up stuff on the bed?” Zach pointed to the last pattern that Frankie had created.

            “I am trying to visualize the relationships of everybody here. It is a pretty tangled mess, and I don’t have all the information. Like for instance”, he picked up a tube of mascara to illustrate, “outside of the house Amanda is your boss. That is going to come into play because I know you would never put her up.” He moved the mascara to the far side of the bed. He picked up two tubes of night cream, “Cody and Paulie, they’re our friends, so we won’t want to put them up”. He put the tubes of night cream to the side. He picked up a container of eye shadow, “Zakiyah and DaVonne. We can’t nominate them because Zakiyah is Paulie’s girlfriend.”

            “Are they still together? I thought they broke up a while back and I haven’t noticed them together this evening.”

            Frankie shrugged. “I’m not sure. I think they break up and make up a lot.”

            Zach’s eyes darted to Frankie’s and then quickly away. The same thing had been said about them in the past.

            “Anyway, everybody here has some connection, whether a good one or a bad one, to somebody else here. I don’t know about Cindi and Stella though. I could kick myself for not watching their season.”

            “Speaking of which, I assumed when you said you didn’t watch their season it was because you were involved,” Zach said, a bit hesitantly, “but I noticed when Victor asked who was single, you raised your hand.”

            “Yeah, I did,” Frankie shrugged, “I am single.”

            “But aren’t you…I mean, I heard that you were engaged, or at least about to be. It was all over the Internet a few months ago. I didn’t see any news that you two had split.”

            “It was recent. It was an amicable split. Our schedules were conflicted so we decided that the best thing to do would be to take a break. We are still good friends and I wish him all the best.”

            “Wow. You memorized that speech pretty well! That’s what every celebrity couple says when they split up, like..verbatim!”

            Frankie gave a little smirk, “We must all have the same PR people. And for the record, we were never officially engaged. During an interview he made some comment implying that we were and the press ran with it. Since I’ve just spilled my guts, your turn. I noticed that you _didn’t_ raise your hand. So, you’re taken?”

            “Oh yeah! Most definitely; locked down for life.” Zach said with a huge smile.

            “That’s great. I’m happy for you. So tell me, do they do a body cavity search on you when you go to visit her, or just settle for a pat down?”

            Zach giggled, “Frankie! Stop! You know I was never with her. It was a joke! She couldn’t even memorize the lines I gave her!”

            “I know. I saw. Zach, a joke isn’t a joke if you are the only one laughing.”

            Zach sighed. “I get it. I admit I didn’t handle it the best.”

            Frankie closed his eyes and gave a small shake of his head, “That is the understatement of the century.”

            “So, will you show me some more connections?” Zach asked, partly to change the subject, but he was also very interested to learn what Frankie was thinking.

            Frankie shook his head. “I need to think about it a bit more, and maybe talk to some people and see if I can figure out where their thoughts are leaning. I can tell you this: I have a feeling that Devin and Austin are not going to get along. I could see them sizing each other up. That could be good for us if they start targeting each other. Oh, and one more thing—try to cultivate something with Shelby if you can.”

            “Shelby? Why?” Zach asked, tilting his head a bit.

            “On her season she mentioned that she would date you if you had a job. I’m not asking you to make out with her or anything that could hurt your relationship, just be friendly to her. She hates me, so you are our only chance to escape the nomination if she and Alex win HOH.”

            “Wait a minute! What do you mean, she hates you?” Zach’s posture changed, as he pulled his body up stiffly.

            Frankie gave a small wave of his hand, “It’s no big deal. I heard a rumor about a post she supposedly wrote. It said something like she was going to ‘shine bright like a Frankie’ after she set me on fire.”

            “What the fuck?!!!” Zach fairly yelled it as he lurched off the bed, his fists doubled.

            Frankie reached up and grabbed Zach’s arm. “Calm down! She didn’t mean it literally! She just said it figuratively to show how much she dislikes me. It happens.”

            “How am I supposed to be nice to her knowing that?” Zach demanded.

            “She is super intelligent, and she is good in comps. Alex is too. But Alex has a boyfriend, so I don’t think she will be as receptive. You don’t have to do anything, but I don’t think I have a shot to get them to warm up to Team Zankie.”

            Zach slowly sat back down on the bed and ran his hand over his face. He nodded. “Okay, I’ll do it for you…for us. But it’s going to be hard.”

            Frankie began to gather up his make-up containers and place them in his bag.

            “Are you going back out there now?” Zach asked as he noticed Frankie cleaning up.

            Frankie shook his head. “No, I have a horrible headache. I think I’m going to go to bed. Funny, I never thought I would be in bed before Donny!” He ended with a little laugh.

            “Turn around,” Zach ordered.

            “What?” Frankie was startled by the authority in Zach’s voice.

            “Turn around; I’m going to rub your shoulders. I can see the tension from here.”

            “No, that’s okay. I’ll just sleep it off.”

            “Frankie! Don’t be stubborn! If one member of the team is suffering then the whole team suffers. You’ve played sports, you know that. Now turn around!”

            Frankie couldn’t think of an argument, and truthfully, he really did need a neck rub. Also, over the years, Zach had gotten really good at giving them. He turned around and let Zach give him a massage.

            After a time, Frankie’s muscles began to relax. He sighed and said, “Do it harder.”

            They both froze for an instant as the memories of other times those words had been spoken between them ran through their minds. Then Zach dug his fingers deeper into Frankie’s shoulders and massaged them vigorously.

            Donny entered the room and made his way to one of the beds.

            “Hey Donny. Are you going to bed?” Zach asked.

            “I thought I might lay down for a bit. It’s getting a little rowdy out there for me.”

            Frankie tapped Zach’s hand, “It’s enough. Thank you.”

            Zach dropped his hands and got up from the bed. “Is there anything you need? Advil? Water?”

            “Water would be nice, thanks,” Frankie said as he began to turn down the covers.

            “Sure! Donny, can I bring you something?” Zach asked on his way out of the room.

            “No thank ya, Zach. I don’t need anything, except maybe some quiet, but I don’t think I’m going to get much of that,” Donny said with a little laugh.

            Zach laughed as he left the room. Frankie pulled off his tee-shirt but left his shorts on as he slid in between the sheets. He reached into his make-up bag and pulled out his sleep mask and cotton balls.

            “Are you going to bed too, Frankie? It’s a bit early for you, isn’t it?” Donny called from his bed.

            “I’ve got a killer headache.”

            “Oh! That’s too bad,” he said as he watched Frankie putting cotton in his ears. “Does that cotton work?”

            Frankie shrugged. “It muffles it a bit.”

            “Could you spare some?”

            “Sure!” Frankie fished a couple more cotton balls out of the bag, and Donny came over to get them. Zach hurried back into the room with the bottle of water.

            He stepped around Donny to hand Frankie the bottle, but stopped short when he saw Frankie. “Uh..wow. You..uh, you’re really tan.”

            Frankie looked down at his chest. The contrast of his skin against the white sheets was pretty dramatic. “I just got back from visiting some friends in Hawaii.”

            “Oh.” Zach said, handing Frankie the water, “The same friends that you visited when you went there before?”

            Frankie took a drink of the water and nodded, “Yeah, and I made some new friends too.”

            Zach’s back tensed. “Well, if you don’t need anything else, I’m going back outside and mingle a bit.”

            Frankie nodded. “Good idea.”

            Zach turned and made his way out of the room. After he left, Donny sat down on Frankie’s bed, playing with the cotton balls in his hand.

            “So, how are things between you and Zach?” he asked.

            “Things are fine. We are best friends and we talk all the time.” Frankie answered.

            “I was born in the morning, but it wasn’t THIS morning. I know. I just hope y’all get along better than the ‘Double D’s’!”

            “Problems already?” Frankie asked, taking another drink from his water.

            Donny sighed. “I’m the one that got the Veto that got him kicked out of the game during our season. We all worked so hard, and now he is back and I am stuck with him. He is going to make people angry and upset, and they will think I am a part of it.”

            Frankie shook his head, “No, we all know how he is. People love you; they don’t love him. I don’t see that changing just because it is a different season.”

            “Good because I wanted you to know that as soon as he saw you and Zach, he said that you are his targets. You’re not mine! I like you boys. He is still upset about that race show he didn’t get on or something. He has been rambling on about it. I wanted you to know though so you could be planning on what to do if he wins HOH. I just hope we make it until the team twist ends so we can get rid of him.”

            “What makes you think the team thing won’t go on for the entire season?” Frankie asked.

            Donny leaned back a bit and grinned at Frankie. “I heard Big Brother say ‘the winner’ instead of ‘the winning team’. I looked around the room to see if anybody else noticed. Nobody did. Nobody but you. I saw your face. Did you tell Zach?”

            Frankie licked his lips and then nodded.

            “I’m not telling Devin. I don’t trust him. If the rest of them figure it out, I think they will be gunning for us and for you guys. Did you tell Cody?”

            “No. I debate it but decided it should just stay between me and Zach.”

            Donny nodded. “I’m not saying anything to anybody. And I will do my best to persuade Devin not to go after you and Zach. He and Austin seem to be at odds with each other, which may help.”

            “Zach and I haven’t spoken about who we would go after if one of us wins HOH. I think I can speak for him when I say that your name will not be on our list.”

            Donny got up from the bed, “That is good to hear. Ya know…it is hard being back here. I sure am glad that you, Zach, and Cody are here too. It makes it feel a bit more like I’m not so alone. I’m going to let you get some sleep now. I hope you feel better tomorrow. And thanks for the cotton balls!”

            “I packed a bunch of them, so you can have some any time.” Frankie said, as he put on his sleep mask and snuggled down in his bed. “Goodnight!”

 


	3. Chapter Three

            When Frankie woke up, the room was dark. He sat up in his bed, carefully, so as not to disturb Zach. He searched the beds nearest theirs. The light from the hall didn’t reach this far into the room, but he could make out some shapes of the sleeping occupants. With no clocks in the room, he had no idea what time it was, but he felt wide awake. He slipped out of bed and his feet found his flip-flops that he had placed there the night before. He bent over and felt for his discarded tee-shirt. He picked it up, and quietly walked out of the room.

            Zach had awakened when Frankie first sat up. He watched Frankie gathering his things and leaving the room without making a sound. Unbidden a memory came back to Zach. One which he wished he could forget. He and Frankie had always had a stormy relationship, full of screaming break-ups and equally passionate make-ups. The last time they were together was different. It was the same issue that they always had. Frankie wanting them to have a public life; Zach contented to keep things private between the two of them. Instead of their usual argument, Frankie had lain there quietly for a long time. Zach had assumed he had fallen asleep and was on the verge of sleep himself when he felt Frankie slip out of the bed. Frankie had gathered his things quietly and had left the room, and as Zach found out later, had left the hotel. A few days later on Frankie’s Instagram, Zach had seen a picture of him and some guys on a beach in California. Zach was hurt and pissed. He spent hours planning what he would say once Frankie came to his senses and called him. Days passed, but no call came. Zach watched all Frankie’s social media sites obsessively. One guy was in every picture. He and Frankie weren’t even touching in the pictures, but Zach knew that man wanted Frankie. It was more instinct than real knowledge, but he knew. Once Frankie returned to NYC, Zach gave in and called him. Frankie didn’t answer. After a few days of calling around the clock and immediately getting transferred to Frankie’s voicemail, he realized Frankie was either screening his calls, or Zach’s number was blocked.

            Zach noticed the man from the California beach pictures began showing up in the background of Frankie’s pictures in NYC. After some weeks had passed, Frankie tagged the man in the picture and Zach immediately went to his IG page. A decision he instantly regretted as he saw the pictures of the guy and Frankie together and read the captions the guy had written. Zach knew that Frankie hadn’t cheated on him during the time they were together, but Frankie and this man had obviously known each other before their split. He had been posting pictures of Frankie for a while, with captions like “The perfect man”, “My future husband (I wish)”, and “What a beauty!”.

            After a few months, Frankie and the guy flew to Hawaii where they announced to the world that they were officially a couple. Zach hadn’t known that a person could feel so much pain and still keep on breathing, working, functioning. To ease his pain, he did a lot of partying and stunting for the public. He even pretended that the girl he stunted with was his girlfriend.

            But late at night, when he was alone and the buzz had worn off, his mind would go back to the night that Frankie had silently gotten out of bed and walked out of his life for good.

            Zach sighed and rolled over. He chided himself for giving into that memory. The experience hadn’t killed him, it had made him stronger. He felt like he was a different person now. He had new goals and new plans. The first thing on his to-do list was to win the $500,000. If not that, then the $50,000 would do. He knew that everyone else had the same goal, but he wanted it so badly he could taste it. This time it was going to happen.  It had to.

\----------

            As soon as Frankie entered the hallway, he could see Donny in the kitchen sweeping the floor.

            “Hey! `Morning Frankie! Did your headache go away?” he asked with a smile.

            “Yes, thank God! Is the backyard closed?”

            “Yeah, they’ve been out there building something for a while. I reckon it is for the HOH comp. I’m an ‘Odd’ so I’ll be competing. You’re an ‘Odd’, too, right?”

            Frankie nodded, as he yawned and stretched.

            “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I really want to win this first one. I don’t want to put a bigger target on ‘The Double D’s’ than there already is.”

            Frankie sighed. “I don’t know what to do. If I throw it then our game is in someone else’s hands; but if I don’t throw it, like you said…it’ll put a big target on us.”

            “I just wonder how many other people have figured the team twist out. It may just be us, but some of these other folks may be smart too. I remember watching Vanessa’s season. She was pretty sharp. Anyway, I made some coffee if you want some.”

            “Oh, bless you!” Frankie said as he went to the pot and poured a cup.

            “I watched you on that ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ show in England. You did real well for yourself. I didn’t like that Bear man. It was mean what he did with the coffee,” Donny said as Frankie took his first sip from the cup.

            “It really was. I tried so hard to keep my temper, but that was the last straw. At least on our ‘Big Brother’ if someone is destructive, they either get ejected from the game or the Houseguests vote them out. Over there,” he paused and shrugged, “they win.”

            “Hey, is this where the party’s at?” Victor joked, as he walked into the kitchen.

            “It sure is!” Donny answered. “We have some coffee and I think I spotted some Pop-Tarts in the storage room.”

            Victor laughed, “Sounds like we are going to have a great party. The others will be sorry they slept through it. Have they played the music yet?”

            “No, not yet. I imagine they will soon though.” Donny answered.

            “Good! I like to start the day with a dance!” Victor declared as he headed off in the direction of the bathroom.

            “Me too,” Frankie said.

            “I’m glad. I hate dancing alone,” he called back over his shoulder.

            Victor was back right before the music started. “Do you dance, Donny?”

            “Not to the kind of music they play in here. But I like watching other folks!”

            The wake-up music started and Frankie leapt to his feet and started dancing.

            “Hey Frankie, do you Salsa?” Victor called.

            “Yes! I love it!” Frankie said. He and Victor moved to the small bare space that served as a hallway between the living room and the dining area. “I usually lead, but I will follow you anywhere!” Frankie joked.

            Victor pulled him close and started the dance. Frankie caught onto Victor’s rhythm very quickly and soon they were dancing as if they had been practicing for years.

            At the end of the song, Victor spun Frankie around and they ended with a flourish. They were startled when they heard the applause from the majority of the Houseguests who had gotten up for the music and had been watching them. The second song started and some of them began to dance their own dances to it. Stella stroked her fingers lightly over Victor’s bare chest and asked him if he would teach her how to Salsa.

            “Sure I will! But not right now. When the music is playing, I want to do it with someone who knows how. Come on, Frankie! Let’s do it again!” Victor said, laughing.

            Frankie said, in his Marilyn Monroe voice, “Oh Daddy! You want to do it again?” and batted his eyelashes.

            Victor roared with laughter as he scooped Frankie back into his arms. Zach, who was on his way to the kitchen to get a glass of water, had to snake his way through the dancing people. He knocked his shoulder hard into Victor’s as he passed by. Victor didn’t notice because he was having so much fun dancing with Frankie.

\-----------

            The first HOH competition began at 2:00 in the afternoon. Frankie felt blinded by the sun after being inside all day. The Odds had been given comp outfits in their teams’ colors. He looked down at his tiny pink shorts and blue tank top. Zankie colors. Production was really milking it. He mentally shrugged. It didn’t matter; they were his favorite colors anyway.

            He looked at his opponents. He would be competing against Amanda, Alex, Jace, Cody, Donny, Paul, Natalie, Danielle, Liz, Zakiyah, Tiffany, and Cindi. He felt his adrenaline levels soar. He loved competing against people who were there to give it everything they had, and he had watched all of the seasons (except Cindi’s, which he still mentally kicked himself about) so he knew that a lot of these players would be in it to win it. The first two team members to fall would cause their teams to be have-nots for the week.

            They all had to move to what looked like tree stumps. At Big Brother’s signal they stepped up to stand on one. The instructions they were given said that there were two poles that would be coming around. One was stationary so they were to jump or step over it, but the other pole was movable. If it was high when it came to you, you had to duck it; if it was low, you had to jump it. Frankie had seen this game a few times on the past seasons, but they always changed it just a bit to make it look like a new game.

            It started slow and easy, but just as they got comfortable with the speed, Production changed it up. Sometimes it was slow, sometimes fast, and sometimes it would suddenly go in reverse. A few people fell off after about fifteen minutes, but the rest of the competitors were diehards. After a half-hour, ice cold water began to rain down on them.

            People began to drop faster after that. During a break from the spraying, Frankie quickly gazed around the ring of stumps to see how many were left. There were more than what he had hoped. While he was scanning the ring, his eyes met Donny’s. The older man gave Frankie a little nod, and then tripped over the pole instead of jumping it.

            Frankie turned his attention back to the poles that were coming his way. He had no doubt that Donny had dropped on purpose. After all, he had hinted he was going to this morning in the kitchen. Frankie didn’t know if he could throw a comp, or even if he should. He kept going.

            After two more showers of the icy water, he scanned the stumps again. Somehow it was just he and Cody left. For a second, he did entertain the idea of throwing it to Cody. His eyes searched the spectators for Zach, but met Donny’s eyes first. Donny gave him a nod. Frankie knew that Donny was encouraging him to throw it. He jerked his gaze away, just in time to see the pole that hit him on the ankles, dropping him to his knees. The second pole was making its descent and slammed Frankie in the chest, shoving him off the stump and onto the mat below. It knocked the breath out of him, and he lay there gasping as he heard Cody declared the winner.

            While he was still down, Zach ran over to him with a thick towel. He draped it across Frankie’s shoulders and took Frankie’s hands in his to warm them. They were numb and had turned purple from the cold water. Cody, wrapped in his own towel, ran over to them.

            “Are you okay? That pole hit you pretty hard!” Cody exclaimed.

            Frankie nodded, “I’m okay. The pole didn’t hurt; the fall just knocked the wind out of me.”

            “You’re bleeding,” Cody observed.

            Zach startled and clutched at Frankie’s hands, as he looked for the blood. “Where?!”

            “On his knee. Probably where he hit the stump.” Cody pointed.

            Frankie leaned over to see it because he didn’t feel any pain, but before he could see it, Zach scooped him up in his arms and began to carry him, running, calling for the medic.

            Big Brother had the DR door open, and a medic in the room, waiting for them. The medic dipped a piece of gauze in some alcohol, rubbed it across Frankie’s knee, placed a dab of triple-antibiotic cream on it, and then applied a ‘Hello Kitty’ band-aid. He closed his first-aid kit and announced that Frankie would live.

            The medic left the room and Frankie turned to look at Zach. He enunciated very carefully, speaking slowly, “What…the…fuck?!!”

            Zach looked down and began to pick at his fingernails. “The water made it look like there was a lot of blood. I got scared. I mean, this is your week to play for us. If Cody and Paulie put us on the block, you have to be in top form to play for the Veto.”

            Frankie shook his head in exasperation. “Cody and Paulie put us up on the block?!! On the first week? Are you even listening to yourself?”

            “I panicked. Sorry.”

            “Oh, my God. We are going to look so stupid when we go back out there and they find out it is just a little scrape!”

            “Maybe you could limp a little bit or something,” Zach suggested.

            “What?!!” Frankie huffed, “No!” He clutched the towel around his shoulders tightly and stormed out of the DR.

            As they walked out back into the living room, people were all milling around to see how Frankie was.

            “It’s fine! It looked worse than it was,” Frankie answered them as he quickly walked to the bathroom to run hot water over his hands.

            When he could finally feel his fingers again, he strode back to the bedroom to collect some fresh clothes so he could shower. Zach trailed along behind him.

            Frankie closed the dresser drawer with a little bit more force than was necessary and snapped, “Stop mothering me! I am fine!”

            “Frankie that fall you took looked bad. It scared me. I thought if it was as bad as it looked, then we might have to leave the game. Then the blood freaked me out. I’m sorry I overreacted. I just really want to try to win the game.”

            Frankie took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I’m glad to know that you are all in this time around. I am too. With both of us on board, we have a good chance. Aside from a scraped knee, I’m fine, so just…chill, okay? I’m going to take a hot shower and get warmed up.”

\-----------

            After his shower, Frankie dried his hair and styled it, then put on his make-up. Stella and Cindi sat in the bathroom and watched him. They asked him numerous questions, and before he knew it, he was giving them make-up makeovers. Natalie, who had become fast friends with the Sorority team, joined them.

            After a time, other people began to trickle in to watch. When he finished working on the Sorority girls’ makeovers, Frankie looked up and realized that almost everyone in the house was watching. Some of them even asked questions. He looked up and found Zach in the crowd, and Zach threw him a wink. Frankie was a bit surprise and cornered Zach later to ask him about it.

            Zach laughed. “You were working it hard.”

            “Working what? I truly don’t know what you are talking about,” Frankie answered, bemusedly.

            “Your social game. Since you host a fashion and beauty show on Amazon, you are considered an expert. They were all thrilled to get your advice! I’m glad we are working together instead of against each other, or I would have just lost.”

            Frankie smiled and gave a small shrug. “I honestly didn’t think about it. I was just killing time.”

            “Well, keep doing what you’re doing! I’m going to start working on Shelby. I’ve talked to her enough to know that it’s true: She really doesn’t like you.”

            “It’s a good thing Cody won instead of Alex then. Maybe by the time one of them does win, you will be on her good side.”

\----------

            The have-not room was revealed shortly after their talk. Cindi had been the first one out, followed quickly by Tiffany, so the two teams for have-nots were Sorority girls and Team Rousso.

            For the beds, there were four teacups that held large beanbags. There were cut-outs on the sides of the cup to allow people to enter and exit. It reminded Frankie of the Teacup ride at Disney. He could tell that it would be possible to sleep in them if a person kept curled up all the time. It wouldn’t be too bad for a night, but after a few days, it was going to suck. Still better than the icy room they had on their season though.

            Much later in the evening, Cody and Paulie were called to the DR. Most of the Houseguests gathered around the living room area, waiting. They didn’t have to wait long until the guys came out together, calling in sing-song voices, “Who wants to see our HOH room?”

            Paulie and Cody lead the way up the spiral staircase, and were followed by the other twenty-four Houseguests. There had never been such a large cast before, so they took up most of the landing as they waited for the door to be unlocked. Once the door was opened, they all filed in.

            There had been changes here too. In Season 16, there had been two HOH rooms; in Season 18 the second HOH room had been turned into the Paris room. Big Brother hadn’t used the room since that time. This season the walls that had separated the HOH room from the annex room had been removed, turning the HOH room into a huge suite containing two double beds. They had continued the tea-room motif up here, but instead of the pseudo-sophisticated, somewhat “grandmother-ish” décor of the other rooms in the house, this giant room seemed to give a nod to the surreal.

            Cindi squealed and clapped her hands. “It reminds me of the Mad Hatter’s tea party in ‘Alice in Wonderland’!”

            Frankie examined the room and decided she wasn’t wrong. In addition to odd statues of hats set in crazy places, there was a picture on the wall of a tree with the huge smile of the Cheshire cat and two glowing eyes but no other part of the cat showing. The picture, heck…the entire room, was creepier than fuck. Frankie loved it.

            A table contained Cody and Paulie’s HOH baskets and their letters from home. The other Houseguests made themselves comfortable on the beds and on various couches and chairs that were around the room. Paulie read his letter from the Calafiore’s sister Angie, and then Cody read his from his girlfriend, Cristie. His voice broke a few times with emotion, but he managed to make it to the end of the letter without crying.

            The Houseguests milled around, looking at the Calafiores’ pictures and sharing their snacks. Frankie wondered off in search of the fish. They had been in a tank in the bathroom on his season, in a coffee table in Season 17, in the headboard of the bed in Seasons 18 and BBOTT, and in a picture frame on BB19. He walked into the bathroom and found that the wall behind the bathtub was a water wall aquarium. He sat down on the tub’s edge and watched the fish.

            He must have lost track of time, because Zach came looking for him. “Everybody’s gone back downstairs. Cody and Paulie want to discuss noms with us.”

            From the moment they walked back in the BB house and he saw Cody and Paulie, Frankie knew that he and Zach would be aligned with them. They were all friends outside the house so it only made sense.

            During Big Brother 16, Frankie had figured out the flaw in the design of the house. Any conversations in the HOH room could be heard downstairs, unless the bathroom door was closed. For the next season, and for every season afterwards, there was no longer a door that separated the spaces.

            The four men set close together and whispered out their plans. Paulie was set in his choices, and none of the others could convince him anything different. By rights it was Cody’s final decision, but even though he argued with Paulie, they all knew that Cody would cave and Paulie would get his way.

            Cody, Paulie, and Zach shared some of the beers that the Calafiores had received in their HOH basket. Frankie didn’t like to drink when he was playing Big Brother, and since beer made him sick, it was easy to refuse. A little after midnight, the backdoor was opened and lockdown was over.

            Zach and Paulie left the HOH room to join the others outside. Cody and Frankie were left alone. They discussed Paulie’s nom suggestions, and the possible ramifications of making enemies out of teams that could have been made into allies.

            Cody sighed, “He’s my brother, and I love him, but he can be a bit of a loose cannon sometimes. Once his mind is made up, that’s it. And speaking of loose cannons, Zach sure made a scene today over your knee, didn’t he?”

            Frankie frowned, “I know, right? He acted like my leg was cut off! He apologized later and said he was just afraid I was injured too badly to play, and he doesn’t want to go home.”

            Cody nodded, “That’s understandable, I guess. Frankie, if this is none of my business, just say so, okay? But less than two months ago, Cristie and I went out to dinner with you and…”

            Frankie held up his hand, “Don’t say his name. He didn’t sign a release. But I know who you mean.”

            “Okay, so we went out to eat with you and… Mr. X. You seemed really happy together. I didn’t know that anything had happened until I saw you raise your hand as one of the single people. What happened, did he object to you coming back to Big Brother?”

            Frankie gave a little start. “Kind of,” he replied. “How did you guess?”

            “I don’t know; it just came to me. Why? He knows how much you love ‘Big Brother’! You and I are always talking about it when we get together. I would think he would have been supportive when you got another chance to be on it.”

            “It wasn’t the show he objected to,” Frankie answered, flatly.

            “It wasn’t? What was it then? Oh…” Cody trailed off.

            “Yeah. He didn’t want me to be on a team with Zach. It was a ridiculous argument. He knew that Zach was in my past, and no threat to our relationship, but he wouldn’t back down. I had to choose. So…here I am!”

            “Did you try to get another partner? Maybe Caleb? CBS loves him,” Cody suggested.

            Frankie sighed, and rubbed his hands across his face. He licked his lips. “Look, if I tell you this, Zach can’t know.”

            Cody watched Frankie’s nervous movements. He knew whatever he was about to hear was big. He nodded, “I won’t say a word!” he promised.

            Frankie’s eyes darted to the door to make sure no one was there to overhear. He leaned in and whispered. “They did offer me the option of Caleb, but if I picked him, Zach wasn’t going to get to come back.”

            “And if you refused to come back at all?” Cody prompted.

            “Team Zankie would be replaced by another team.”

            “So, Zach wouldn’t be back then either?”

            Frankie shook his head ‘no’. “CBS has him blacklisted because of that ‘Amazing Race’ thing. They would only allow him back if he was a part of Team Zankie.”

            Cody sat silently for a few moments. “Did Mr. X know that you had these choices?”

            “Yeah, we discussed the options when I got my contract.”

            “Wow. No wonder you guys broke up. It makes perfect sense.” Cody declared.

            “It does? I wish you will fill me in then, because I still don’t get it. We split up because of a game. It’s stupid.” Frankie said, exasperated.

            “Frankie?” Cody asked with a little laugh, “You really don’t get it? It wasn’t the game! You picked Zach over him, that’s the reason you are not together.”

            “No! No, that’s not…” Frankie huffed, “I didn’t choose Zach over him! I didn’t! I just didn’t want to be the one that kept someone else from playing a game that I know we both love.”

            “But yet, it didn’t bother you to keep Caleb from coming back.” Cody announced.

            Frankie fidgeted in his seat and looked down at his hands. He licked his lips a few times. “CBS loves Caleb. He has been on ‘Survivor’ twice. He could be on another season in the future. I was Zach’s only hope.”

            Cody could see how uncomfortable this conversation was making Frankie, so he decided to let him off the hook. “Yeah, you’re right. Why don’t we go outside?”

            Frankie nodded as he got up. “You won’t say anything, right? Not even to Paulie?”

            “I won’t say a word. You know the live feeders all know it now though.”

            “Yeah, but it won’t matter once the game is over. I just don’t want Zach to know while he is in here. I’m afraid he would either sabotage himself, or quit.”

            “Yeah, he probably would.”

            The guys joined the others outside. With so many people, it was very festive. There were groups of people in the pool and in the hot tub. Others were using the weights, or sitting on the couches, chatting. A few people were playing pool, including Zach and Paulie. Frankie and Cody sat nearby, watching them.

            After the game ended, they decided to play a tournament. Zach/Cody vs Paul/Victor, with Frankie/Paulie playing the winners. When Cody and Zach lost their game, they went back to the HOH room to drink a few more beers.

            They had been out of touch for months so they had a lot to catch up on. Cody had been telling story after story about he and Cristie, when Zach interrupted him and asked if they were going to get married.

            “Uh, well…I mean, I’ve never met anyone I’ve cared about like I do her. I think it is a bit soon to think about marriage yet, but it is not out of the question for the future.” Cody stammered his answer.

            “I am,” Zach said bluntly.

            “You are what?” Cody asked, a bit slurred from the alcohol.

            “I’m getting married. I think. I hope, anyway. But you can’t tell anybody, okay?” Zach beamed.

            Cody sighed. It seemed to be his day to hear the Zankie team’s secrets. He wasn’t sure how he had gotten himself into their business, but he wasn’t going to betray his friends. “I won’t say anything to anybody. Not even Paulie,” he promised.

            “Good. I knew I could trust you. Are you surprised?”

            “Actually, I am. I didn’t know that you were seeing anybody, but it has been a while since we’ve talked. Do you want to tell me about it?” Cody really didn’t want to know, but he felt like asking was the right thing to do.

            Zach smiled slowly and leaned back against the back of the couch where he sat facing Cody who was lounging on the bed. “Let’s just say that I am in love. Really, truly in love. Like…head over heels in love. Locked down. I want to propose as soon as the game is over.”

            Cody shifted a bit. He could see by Zach’s face that it was true. Cody had been given a lot of information that night, and it didn’t rest easy on his mind. “I can tell that you are happy. I’m glad. I hope it goes the way you want.”

            “It will. It has to or else I am fucked for life.” Zach said, with a slight shrug. “Since we are alone, how do you really feel about who Paulie wants to nominate?”

            Cody was happy for the change of subject. They talked for a long time. Eventually Paulie came up and joined them.

            Zach peeked around behind Paulie but saw that he was alone. “Where’s Frankie?”

            “Oh, he went to bed a while ago. Why don’t you stay up here with us tonight? Me and Cody can share, and you can have the other bed.” Paulie suggested.

            “Yeah,” Cody agreed. “We can finish up the beers, and you won’t have to worry about waking up Frankie.”

            Zach agreed. He flopped down on the other bed and drank with the brothers. They joked and bullshitted until eventually they got tired enough to fall asleep.

            The next day Cody did as Paulie wanted and nominated the Rousso sisters and the Nolan twins, even though it went against his better judgment. During the Veto comp, Liz won and took herself and Julia off the block. Cody named Jatalie as the replacement nom. The Roussos were voted out on Thursday’s live show.

 


	4. Chapter Four

            Zach was pumped. The Roussos had just been evicted, and it was almost time to play for HOH. They had been given costumes to wear. Zach’s was a onesie short outfit with pink and blue stripes. He couldn’t help to smile at it. It looked like an outfit someone would wear if they were locked up in a Zankie prison. He was worried about the lack of footwear though. Big Brother hadn’t given them any, and had instructed them not to use their own. Sitting in the living room with the other “Even” players: Andy, Shelby, Austin, Paulie, Devin, Victor, James, Justin, Julia, DaVonne, and Stella, he studied their naked feet. He hoped that they wouldn’t have to walk across burning coals. He took a deep breath and decided that if they did, he would win it even if he burned his feet off at the ankles.

            The “Odds” Houseguests were told to go outside and choose a seat in the spectator area. As Frankie walked through the living room, he shot Zach a questioning look. Zach gave him a smile and a slight nod. He had this.

            Big Brother announced that it was time for the “Even” players to go to the backyard. Zach was full of excitement, until he walked outside and saw what the comp was. He had seen something very similar on ‘Survivor’. His heart sank.

            It was the standing poles with the pegs for your feet. Each peg up the pole got progressively smaller. The larger and heavier a person was, the deeper those pegs were going to dig into their feet. It was a comp that favored a smaller person.

            At Big Brother’s signal, they grabbed both the poles on either side of them and stepped up to their first peg. They then had to release the poles and stand there with all their weight on the pegs. Less than ten minutes into the comp, and while still on the widest peg, Devin, Austin, and James fell off, one right after the other. The rest stayed on that peg for another five minutes before Big Brother told them to step up to the next peg.

            They lost Paulie, DaVonne, and Julia in the first half of the time they were on that peg and Stella dropped immediately before Big Brother announced it was time for the third peg.

            Zach saw that he only had to beat Jason, Andy, and Shelby. He searched for Frankie in the spectator’s area and saw him biting his lip and frowning. Zach knew that Frankie was worried. Zach tried to give Frankie a smile to reassure him, but it felt more like a grimace than a smile. Sweat was running in his eyes and down his back, and his legs were shaking, but he dug down deep in himself and pulled up the reserves he needed to keep going.

            Andy made a strangled sound and dropped. Zach’s heart sank. If he couldn’t win it, he had hoped that Andy would. Andy had been the only one left that Zach felt like wouldn’t put Team Zankie on the block. Jason liked Frankie but was not a fan of Zach’s. Shelby didn’t like Frankie and Zach hadn’t had a chance to win her over to Team Zach yet.

            Big Brother announced it was time to move up to the final peg. Zach grabbed the poles and lifted one foot off the peg and raised it to the next one. As he was pulling his other foot up, his knee buckled and he fell to the mat below.

            He rolled over and looked back up. He saw Shelby look down at him and grin. His heart sank. He knew if she won she was definitely coming after them.

            Then Frankie was there, handing him a towel to wipe the sweat off his face, and telling him how well he had done. Zach shook his head ‘no’. If he had done well, he would still be on those pegs, and wouldn’t have put them in danger of going home.

            Frankie had to help him hobble over to the spectator’s area to sit down, and then Frankie pressed a bottle of water into his hand. The rest of the spectators were congratulating him on staying up there so long, but Zach felt like a failure. Jason and Shelby stayed on the top peg for a long time. The spectators had no way to judge time, but they guessed it was close to fifteen minutes before Jason fell off and Shelby was declared the winner.

            Everyone went to congratulate Shelby and then the doors opened to let them back into the house. Frankie told Zach to grab one of the showers, and he would bring Zach’s clothes to him. He did as Frankie said, but he wasn’t happy about it. He didn’t want anybody to tend to him.

            The shower helped. The pain wasn’t gone, but it had eased a bit. He toweled off and put on the clothes that Frankie had brought to him. Frankie was sitting on the couch in the bathroom, talking to those who were waiting for the showers. He fell into step with Zach as he walked by.

            “Do you need help walking?” Frankie asked, noticing the way that Zach was hobbling.

            “No. I can do it. I think I’m going to lay down for a bit.”

            “Good idea. I’ll bring you some Advil,” Frankie veered off and headed to the storage room.

            Zach stretched on the bed and felt his legs screaming with relief to have his weight off of them. Frankie brought in the Advil and a bottle of water for him. He sat down on the bed beside Zach and began to knead the muscles in Zach’s thigh.

            “Ow! Shit Frankie! Stop!” Zach tried to squirm away, but Frankie held on tight.

            “Zach, I know what I am doing! Dancers get these kinds of leg cramps all the time and we help each other. Like you said, you and I are a team, and if one member of the team suffers, the whole team suffers. Now shut up and let me do this, ya big baby!” Frankie grinned at him.

            Zach sighed and closed his eyes. He let Frankie massage his legs. He thought the same thing he had always thought when Frankie gave massages: The worst thing about getting a massage from Frankie was that he really dug down deep into the muscle and it made Zach want to yell in pain. But the best thing about getting a massage from Frankie was that it worked.

            After Frankie had worked both thighs and calves, he started on Zach’s feet. He carefully avoided the area where the pegs had been, but rubbed out the pain from the other areas. Zach could feel the muscles in his feet and legs vibrating and unloosening. By the time Frankie was finished with his feet, Zach’s leg cramps had eased to just a dull ache.

            “Better now?” Frankie asked quietly.

            “Um-hmm,” Zach said, with his eyes still closed.

            “Okay, good. I’m going to let you get some rest,” Frankie started to get up from the bed, but Zach reached out and grabbed Frankie’s arm. He opened his eyes and looked around. He saw a few people laying down, resting their legs, but they weren’t in the immediate vicinity.

            “I’m sorry. I really fucked it up,” Zach said quietly.

            “Nonsense! When I saw what the comp was, I thought you would be one of the first ones out and we would be on slop all week. You proved me wrong. I know you gave it your best, and that is all you could do. And reminder: I lost my HOH comp too!”

            “Yeah, but you lost to Cody so we were still safe. I’m not sure about Shelby.”

            “I actually think we probably will go up,” Frankie shrugged. “Nothing we can do to stop it from happening.”

            “But if she does put us up, and I lose the Veto…” Zach began in a panicked tone.

            “Then Production will take us out back and shoot us,” Frankie stated.

            “What?!!!”

            “Yeah, that’s what they are doing this year. I heard the shots when they killed the Roussos.” Frankie said, solemnly, but with a twinkle in his eye.

            “Ha ha! Very funny!” Zach said, grumpily.

            “If we get sent home, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll survive. But you are projecting all over the place. We don’t even know that we will be nominated.”

            Zach sighed and ran his hand nervously through his hair.

            “On the plus side,” Frankie said, “We get to see both Austin and Devin try to squeeze into those teacup beds in the Have-Not room.”

            Zach shot Frankie a side-eye and his lips quirked into a small smile. “It will be something to see those two huge guys trying to fit in them. I do feel sorry for Donny though.”

            “And Jace,” Frankie interjected.

            Zach scoffed and gave a small tilt to his head, “And Jace too, of course.”

            “What?” Frankie asked, perplexed.

            “Nothing. I agreed with you when you said Jace.” Zach asked with a scowl.

            “Do you have a problem with him? I thought you liked him.”

            “When I said that about Donny, I meant it was going to be hard on him because he has a bad back.”

            “Oh, okay. I forgot about Donny’s back problem. Well, I’m going to go and join the others. You need to rest.”

            Zach rested for a while, but then he got bored just laying there. He got up and found that his legs were almost back to normal, even with his weight on them. His feet hurt but he figured that would pass soon too. He walked into the living room with a touch of a limp, but nothing too terrible.

            Frankie was sitting on one of the couches. Cody was beside him and had his arm around Frankie. Frankie was resting his head on Cody’s shoulder and they were talking to Paul and Jace who were sitting on the couch opposite theirs.

            “Hey! You’re up! How are you feeling?” Cody asked.

            “Okay, I guess. Feet still hurt but my legs are better. Frankie massaged them for me.” He lay down on the couch next to Frankie with the top of his head pressed against Frankie’s thigh. He reached up and took hold of Frankie’s hand, pulling it down to rest on his cheek and cuddling against Frankie’s arm.

            They talked about the HOH comp and the subsequent aches and pains of the participants. After a while, Paul and Cody got up and went to the storage room to decide what they were going to cook for dinner. Jace went into the kitchen to make a protein shake.

            Under his breath, so low that even Zach had trouble hearing him, Frankie asked, “What’s this all about?” as he tapped his hand against Zach’s cheek.

            “People have been making comments about us. That we don’t seem close anymore because we used to cuddle all the time and we don’t now. Also I heard that they said no one ever sees us talking together.”

            “Which ‘people’?” Frankie asked, impatiently.

            Zach huffed and said, “I don’t remember who all have said stuff. It’s just kind of in the air. So I thought we should stop the rumors.”

            “But really, what does it matter? We’re here, we’re a team and obviously we are working together. Why the speculation about how close or not close we are?”

            “It makes us look suspicious and people may think we are up to something,” Zach answered.

            “We _are_ up to something; the same thing they are. We are here to try to win the game. Nothing shocking or scandalous about that,” Frankie rebutted.

            “But remember… _`They’_ like us together. That’s probably why we were asked back,” Zach whispered. “It’s not a big deal. We will just hang out a bit here and there; make sure people see us talking, and maybe a couple of public hugs every day. The whispers will die down and everybody will focus on something else.”

            Frankie sighed, “Okay, but how is this going to affect you outside the house? You didn’t handle it well the first time, and you did say you were involved with someone.”

            “I had a feeling this would come up so I planned on it.”

            Frankie gave a short, humorless laugh. “I didn’t.”

            “Odd. You are usually the one with all the strategies,” Zach said with a grin.

            “So, are we done now? I am going to go help with dinner,” Frankie said.

            “Yeah, it was enough for now. At least three people saw us,” Zach answered as he loosened his grip and let Frankie remove his hand from his cheek.

            Much later in the evening, Production opened up the backyard. This year Big Brother had added a treadmill and stationary bikes, in addition to the weights, pool, hot tub, and pool table in the back yard. Frankie made his way immediately to one of the bikes. Zach ambled over to the area, pulled two chairs together and propped his legs on one while he sat in the other.

            Cody jogged back and forth the length of the back yard, which was much larger this season to accommodate the increase in cast size. Usually Paulie would jog with him, but tonight Cody jogged alone since Paulie was in a bit of pain from the comp earlier.

            He reached the end of his laps, and began to walk around to keep his muscles from cramping. He grabbed a bottle of water and drank it as he observed all the others in the yard. Paulie got up from the seat where he had been talking to Paul and Victor and joined Cody as he walked the length of the yard.

            “Usually after a run you are in a good mood, but you aren’t now. What’s up?” Paulie asked after studying Cody’s face for a moment.

            “Nothing really. Do you think we’re going up this week?” Cody asked between drinks from his water bottle.

            “I don’t know. It’s possible. No big deal though. If she puts us up, I’ll win the Veto and take us down,” Paulie assured him.

            Cody nodded; he did have faith in his brother’s ability to win comps. Team Jatalie ran by them. James had a handful of shaving cream. From the look of the traces of white foam on his beard and eyebrows, it looked as if he was going to make Natalie pay for getting him first. Paulie laughed, “Those two are still pranking each other even though they broke up ages ago! It’s good to see that they don’t have hard feelings.”

            Cody’s eyes darted, not to James and Natalie, but to Frankie and Zach. He was just in time to see Zach say something, and Frankie, still riding the stationary bike, throw his head back and laugh. Cody frowned. “For some couples it is nice to see; other couples it is just fucking weird.”

            Paulie turned his eyes to follow Cody’s line of sight. “Why? What’s up with them?”

            Cody shook his head, “I don’t know; it’s probably nothing.”

            Paulie directed Cody to a secluded spot near the end of the yard. “Spill it!”

            Cody looked down and studied his feet and the plastic grass for a time, then shook his head no. “I can’t. I want to, but I can’t. Each one of them has confided stuff in me and made me swear not to tell anyone, not even you. They are both like my brothers so I just can’t tell.”

            “They may be ‘like your brothers’, but I AM your brother. You can trust me,” Paulie said and stuck out his hand.

            Cody knew that Paulie was offering him their secret handshake that they had been using since early childhood. This handshake had always been used to forge an unbreakable oath between the two of them. Cody paused for a second, then reached over to Paulie and wrapped his hand around Paulie’s forearm, nearest the elbow. Paulie returned the gesture. It was silly, a version of something the boys had seen in a movie when they were little, but to them it was sacred. After the handshake, Cody knew that Paulie would never break his confidences.

            Cody sighed and sat down on the grass. Paulie sat down next to him. They had a direct line of sight of Zankie. Cody took another drink from his water bottle then sat it down on the plastic grass next to him. He scrubbed his hands across his face, and then began to speak. “Do you remember how it was with them before? They were always fighting or making out. It was a very steamy relationship.”

            Paulie nodded, and his eyes slid over to look at Zakiyah. “Yeah, I remember,” he said, quietly.

            “I never did hear about what finally happened between them. All I knew was that suddenly Frankie was in a relationship with Mr. X,” Cody said.

            “Mr. X? Who is Mr. X? Oh, you mean…” Paulie began but Cody quickly stopped him.

            “Don’t say his name! Frankie didn’t have him sign a waiver.”

            “Yeah, but that doesn’t matter. It’s out there for everyone to look up!” Paulie insisted.

            “I know, but this is the name that we have been using for him. Anyway,” Cody picked up his narrative, “As Frankie and Mr. X became more serious, I always felt really bad for Zach. I knew it had to be hurting him that Frankie was moving on. Zach shut everybody out so there was no way to know how he was doing. He even stopped coming on any social media.”

            “I remember when you kept trying to get a hold of him,” Paulie supplied.

            “Yeah,” Cody nodded, remembering conversations he had with Paulie from that time. “I wanted him to know that no matter what, I was still there for him too. I did like Mr. X and I thought he and Frankie made a good couple. They seemed happy, and they didn’t have those crazy ups-and-downs that Frankie and Zach had had.”

            Paulie nodded. “I liked him, too. Zakiyah and I went out to dinner with them a few months ago.”

            “Right before you two broke up?” Cody asked.

            Paulie shifted a bit, and stole another peek at Zakiyah. “A short time before, yeah.”

            Cody saw where Paulie was looking, so he waited a bit before starting again. “The first night that we were here, Victor asked for a show of hands of the single people. Frankie raised his. I was shocked. I guess like everybody else, I thought he was engaged to Mr. X. We are heading into the ‘secret stuff’ now. Frankie and Mr. X broke up because Mr. X didn’t want Frankie to be Zach’s partner. When I heard that, and knowing that Frankie chose to be here with Zach over Mr. X, I thought… it kind of sounded… like…”

            “Like Frankie is still in love with Zach?” Paulie supplied when Cody was grasping for words. He nodded. “It sounds that way to me too.”

            Cody sighed in relief. “I’m not sure if Frankie realizes it though. Okay, here comes the kicker…Zach is planning to propose to someone after the show ends, or when he goes home…I’m not sure how he worded it. But he has found somebody that he is serious about.”

            “Oh man, that sucks!” Paulie exclaims.

            Cody nodded, “I am happy for Zach, but I feel bad for Frankie. But now the really weird part…have you watched them together?”

            Paulie shrugged. “Not 'watched them', watched them. I see them obviously, but by the tone of your voice, it sounds like I’ve missed something.”

            Cody leaned in closer and lowered his voice, “Today, after the comp when you were lying down, Frankie and I were cuddling on one couch, talking to Paul and Jace who were sitting on the other. Zach came in and lay down on our couch with us. He had his head smashed up against Frankie’s leg, and then Frankie reached over and began to stroke his cheek, and Zach was rubbing Frankie’s arm. Zach told us that Frankie had just given him a massage so his legs felt better. And now, look at them!”

            Paulie looked at them and saw Frankie was still on the bike, but his attention was on Zach. Frankie said something, giving a little toss of his head, and Zach roared with laughter.

            “Cristie and I don’t have the giant ups-and-downs in our relationship like they had, but you and Zakiyah did. What do you make of them acting like that?” Cody asked.

            Paulie watched them for a while, lost in thought. “I have no idea, but you’re right. It is weird.”

            “I’m a bit worried that Zach is setting Frankie up. Such a shame. I always thought they were made for each other, even after they broke up.” He looked at Paulie and saw that his brother was back watching Zakiyah again. “You know, maybe they could have fixed things if only one or the other would have made the first move before it got so out of hand.”

            Paulie nodded. “I was kind of thinking the same thing.”

            Cody picked up his bottle of water and drank the last of it. He stood up and began to walk towards the trash can to throw it away. “Well, what are you waiting for? Unless you want the same thing to happen between you and Zakiyah, you need to get over there and start talking.”

            Paulie got to his feet, “You read my mind, brother!” He hurried across the yard and sat down with the group near Zakiyah.

\----------

            The next day was nomination day. Shelby, on behalf of Team Ballsmashers, nominated Team Calafiore and Team Zankie.


	5. Chapter Five

            Frankie was jolted awake when Zach suddenly sat up in bed. Frankie lifted his sleep mask to peer at him. The room was pitch black, but Frankie could make out Zach’s shape in the dark. He felt the tremors that were wracking Zach’s body shaking their bed.

            “Zach?” Frankie asked, reaching over to touch his arm, “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah. Yeah, it’s nothing. Sorry for waking you.”

            Frankie sat up next to him. “Obviously it’s not nothing. Are you sick?”

            “No. I just had a dream. It’s okay; nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep.”

            “Come on, lay back down and tell me about it.” Frankie whispered as he adjusted his sleep mask and lay back down. He expected Zach to lie back down in his place, but instead Zach cuddled up next to Frankie and rested his head on Frankie’s chest.

            For a split second, Frankie was tempted to object, but he could feel the sweat on Zach’s skin and could feel him still trembling. “What was the dream about? The Veto comp?” Frankie whispered.

            Zach turned his face into Frankie’s chest, and nodded. Frankie sighed and began to stroke Zach’s hair. He rationalized it as it would be the quickest way to get him to calm down so they could go back to sleep. “I know that you are going to do your best. That’s all you can do.”

            “It’s my fault we were nominated in the first place. If I hadn’t spent the night in the HOH room with Cody and Paulie, Shelby wouldn’t think we were working together.”

            “Bullshit. Everybody knows that we are friends with the Calafiores. Of course we would work with them. It’s not your fault.” Frankie soothed.

            “If I lose, I think we’re going home. We can’t campaign against them.” Zach mumbled.

            “I’m not so sure about that. Paulie has more people in here that don’t like him than we do. No matter what happens, I think we will stay.”

            Zach took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Really?”

            “Yes, really,” Frankie assured. He actually did believe that. However, if Paulie won the Veto and used it, Shelby could put up another team that was better liked than Team Zankie. If Zach were thinking rationally, he would have come up with that contingency himself. Thankfully, he wasn’t, so Frankie could feel him begin to relax.

            After a while, Zach whispered, “Thanks.”

            Frankie replied, “No problem. Teammates, remember?”

            Zach nodded but didn’t move back to his side of the bed.

            “All better?” Frankie asked.

            “Mm-hmm.”

            “Do you think you could move over to your side of the bed now?” Frankie suggested.

            Instead of answering, Zach burrowed his head in deeper, and sighed. Frankie took that as a ‘no’.

            Frankie grunted, shifted his back a bit to help hold the extra weight, and closed his eyes.

            Hours later, when the lights came on and the music began to play, Frankie woke up and found Zach still asleep on his chest.

\----------

            They had to dress as ants for the POV comp. Zach scanned the other players—Paulie, Shelby, DaVonne, Sheila, and Austin, and decided they looked as stupid as he felt. It made him feel a bit better.

            The backyard opened up and they were allowed to go outside. Once out there they saw huge mounds of garbage spread out on what looked like a picnic blanket. They were instructed that they had to dig through the picnic food and locate letters. They had to take the letters and arrange them into a word inside a display that looked like a trash can. Once they were satisfied with their word, they were to close the lid and lock in their answer.

            Zach’s heart sank and his stomach churned. He had lost a comp just like this on his season. Donny had won with the word “splitters”.   He knew he would have to do better than he did last time he played when thought he had it with the word “warning”. He also noticed that the comp’s name was ‘Ants on the Trashcan’. “Okay, Big Brother, we get it,” he mumbled under his breath.

            He looked over to Frankie who was sitting on one of the lawn chairs that had been provided for the spectators. Frankie mouthed “Put an ‘s’ on the end of it!”. Zach nodded.

            Like he did the first time he played this game, Zach hid his letters as soon as he found them. After he had accumulated a big stack, he quickly sorted through them to see what he could use. He moved them around a bit and realized he had almost all the letters he needed for a certain word. He quickly put them back into his hiding spot and ran, looking though all the corn-syrup covered foam cut-outs of fake picnic food. He finally found them and ran back to his hidden stash. He laid them out in order to make sure he had them all. When he saw that he did, he gathered them up and ran to his trash can. He saw that no one else had locked a word in yet.

            He arranged his letters on the tray inside the trashcan and stood looking at them. It was an nine-letter word, and that was including the ‘s’ at the end. Donny had won their season by creating a nine-letter word, so that made it seem feasible that he could win too. But then he thought someone would come up with a word like ‘entrepreneurships’ and make them all look like idiots.

            He looked at Frankie. He wished he could mouth the word to him, or at least the number of letters to get his opinion, but he knew the cameras were watching him. Frankie shrugged, and then nodded. He knew that Frankie was telling him if he was sure to go for it. Zach shut his lid and locked his answer in.

            It took a while before the rest of the players were all back and had their answers locked in. Shelby was the last one in, so her word was checked first. She had an eight-letter word, ‘settlers’. On down the line the scores were read. A couple of words that were less than eight-letters, a misspelled word, and a jumble of letters were all that the other contestants had managed. It was down to Zach’s score. He flipped open his lid and showed the word, ‘teammates’. At the last second he felt a surge of panic. What if he made a mistake and it wasn’t one word? All eyes were on him and each second that passed seemed like an eternity. Finally the verdict: a perfectly spelled, nine-letter word. Shelby hung the Veto around his neck. He had managed to save Team Zankie from the block.

            He ran over and grabbed Frankie in a hug. “Oh my God! I did it, Frankie!” he whispered in Frankie’s ear.

            “Yes, you did! I didn’t doubt it for a second,” Frankie said patting his back. It was only a small, white lie.

\----------

            During the Veto ceremony that was held the next day, Zach used the Veto to remove Team Zankie from the block. Shelby put up Team Misfits in their place.

            “I feel bad for Jason and Danielle,” Frankie said to Zach later in the bathroom. Frankie had gone to fix his hair and Zach had followed him.

            “You think they will be the ones voted out?”

            “I almost positive they will be. Jason loves this game as much as I do. It’s a shame he won’t even make it to jury. And I was just getting to know Danielle. She’s such a lovely person.”

            “Would you rather it was Paulie and Cody going?” Zach asked with a frown.

            “Oh hell, no! I’m glad they’re staying. They’re our friends and we know we’re safe with them. I wasn’t positive about the Misfits. Jason is not your biggest fan, and although he and I are friends, he is not the type to let friendship interfere with a game move,” Frankie said, and he put the final touches on his hair and then went into one of the bathroom stalls.

            “Yeah, he does sound like you,” Zach mumbled under his breath.

            “Sorry, I didn’t hear you,” Frankie called out from inside the stall.

            “Um…I just said that I feel bad for them too.”

\----------

            It was the 4th of July in the Big Brother house. Production had given them a grill and some lawn games to play. Plus a fair amount of alcohol. Everyone was in good spirits, even the Misfit Team although they suspected they would be leaving the house. They didn’t stand a chance against the Calafiores and they knew it.

            Zach was at the weight bench, working on his legs, and watching the group that Frankie was talking to. Victor was complaining that they didn’t give him a bald eagle to play with for the 4th. He wanted to do his “Baldwin” routine. Frankie got up and walked over to the pool. He retrieved one of the inflatable pool toys and dried it off with a towel that someone had left laying there. He brought the toy to Victor.

            “Here, use this,” Frankie suggested.

            “As what, a playmate for Pablo?” Victor asked with a laugh.

            “No, he’s a shark. Big Sam, the loan shark!” Frankie said.

            Victor laughed, “Well, I guess I can try it.” He did his Baldwin voice and started demanding ‘Frank’ to pay for a loan.

            Frankie went into his Frank routine, and soon everybody in the area was screaming with laughter.

            “Ugh. They are kind of obnoxious, aren’t they?” Zach heard from behind him. He turned around and saw Shelby standing there.

            He shrugged, “They’re okay. I could do with a little bit less of Victor’s laugh though.”

            Shelby nodded. “It looks like you are being replaced.”

            Zach lowered the weights with his legs and looked over to the group. “Replaced? Replaced by who?”

            “Take your pick: Cody, Paulie, Paul, Victor, or Jace. Maybe all five. It’s a good thing we are playing as duos or your days would be numbered.”

            “That’s just…no. It’ll never happen.” Zach said, lifting with his legs again. “Frankie and I are best friends.”

            “Are you though? I thought I felt a bit of a chill between you two when you first came into the house.” She said, looking pointedly at Zach.

            He grinned. “Well, he thinks so, and I want him to keep thinking that.”

            She laughed, “That’s what I thought. You don’t really like him at all, do you?”

            “Did you watch our season?” Zach asked, switching from working his legs to doing arm curls, which showed his toned arms off to their best advantage. He could see her watching as he put on a little bit of a gun show for her.

            “Yeah, I did. I know what he did to you which is why I never believed the two of you could still be best friends,” she answered, her eyes never moving from his arm as he flexed and released, flexed and released.

            “I’d like to ask you a question. Why did you put me and Frankie on the block?”

            “I am so **NOT** a Frankie fan. I think this house would be a lot better if he wasn’t in it,” she answered without hesitation.

            “And me?” Zach asked.

            “No, I didn’t really want you gone. However, I did want to get a strong team out this week. I have a feeling that soon the team thing will be over.”

            Zach put down the weight and picked up a bottle of water and took a long drink. “So you think we will be playing solo?”

            “Yeah, of course I do. I’m not sure if anybody else has figured that out yet, so don’t repeat it,” she cautioned.

            Zach shook his head, “I won’t. It will stay just between you and me; our little secret. I just hope that if we do break up the teams, Frankie and I are still here. I would like to be the one who gives Frankie what he deserves. I’m sure you understand.”

            Shelby straightened her spine, cocked her head slightly to the side, and gave Zach a slow grin. “I do,” she answered. “I had hoped to get either you guys or the Calafiores out on my HOH, but I don’t mind that it is the Misfits instead. I never liked Jason or Danielle. They don’t like me either. I was their target on OTT. I actually feel pretty good about them leaving, come to think about it.”

            Zach gave her a knowing smile. “My winning the Veto really helped you out then, right?”

            “It helped you out, too,” she agreed with a laugh.

            “That’s true. I guess it helped both of us. Look,” he said, quickly checking to make sure that Frankie was still across the yard from him, “I have been planning something for a while. For Frankie, ya know? I wasn’t expecting to have to work as a team, which has really thrown a wrench into my plans. If it’s like you think it is and Big Brother announces the end to teams, I’m going to need someone I can trust to help me.”

            Shelby smiled broadly. “I’m not saying I would, and I’m not saying I wouldn’t, but suppose I did help you…what’s in it for me? I mean besides getting rid of Frankie.”

            “There is going to come a day when you are going to have to make a hard decision,” he looked pointedly at Alex who was sitting with a nearby group, deep in a conversation with Cindi.

            “Oh no! I couldn’t! She’s my friend,” Shelby protested.

            “I know she is, but she isn’t mine. You are going to need someone to get rid of her for you when the time comes because you won’t be able to do it yourself.”

            Shelby bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground. Zach knew she was considering what he said. He continued, “Towards the end it becomes a game of kill or be killed.”

            She gave a slow nod. “I need to think about it, okay?”

            “Sure. Take all the time you need…at least until the team twist ends. I’ll need to have someone on my side as soon as it’s announced or else my plan could go right down the toilet.”

            “Maybe while I’m thinking it over, you and I could spend some time getting to know each other better,” she looked at Zach and gave him a flirty wink.

            Zach smiled at her, “Well, there is a bit of a problem with that. My heart is committed to someone.”

            “That’s okay, I’m not that interested in your heart, but your other parts look pretty good.”

            He laughed, “Sorry, it’s a package deal. Everything I have is committed, and I won’t cheat.”

            “Oh. That’s too bad,” she said, and turned to walk away. A few steps away she stopped and turned back around, “Don’t make the offer to anyone else just yet, okay? I’ll let you know soon.”

            Zach nodded and she turned around and walked away. He smiled. He had her and he knew it.

\----------

            The next day was Thursday and during the live show, the Misfits were voted out unanimously. Zach met Shelby’s eyes as Team Misfits walked out the door. They exchanged a smile. Even though she had yet to agree, Zach knew that the only thing left to do was to come up with a name for their alliance.


	6. Chapter Six

            The HOH competition was a balancing comp. Frankie was a bit worried about it. If he was competing just against the guys, he would have felt like he would have better odds based on the number of years he had been a dancer. As it was, some of the women he would be competing against were small and light. A couple of them had been cheerleaders, so he knew that their balancing skills would be sharp.

            The instructions were to pick up an oversized saucer on one end, walk across the balance beam and stack a cup on it, walk back along the beam and deposit it. They were to repeat until they had five sets of each. If they dropped anything, or fell off the balance beam, they had to start over.

            Frankie grabbed his saucer and hurried down the balance beam. As he had feared, some of the women were ahead of him. He loaded his cup on the saucer and began to make his way back, going more slowly to prevent the cup from falling. He could hear occasional crashes as some of the others dropped theirs. He made it back, unloaded them, and picked up another saucer to head back. Natalie was the only person who had managed to beat him back the first round.

            By the fourth round, he was far in the lead. He knew that someone could come from behind and beat him if he got overly confident though, so he kept his focus on the task. At the end of his fifth round, he was careful not to become overly excited and screw up at the last second. The memory of Cody’s foot touching the ground before he hit the buzzer on their season flashed in his mind.

            He pushed the plunger down and lit up the HOH letters. Production played the winning tones, so he knew he had officially won. Zach was the first one to him. He grabbed Frankie up into his arms and spun him in a circle.

            “You’re a competition beast!” Zach exclaimed.

            The others ran over to congratulate Frankie so Zach lowered him back down, and stepped aside. Paul grabbed Frankie up into a big bear hug and said, “Not only did you kill it, you looked beautiful doing it! This fool is the prettiest man I’ve ever seen!”

Everyone was talking at the same time about how hard it had been on the return trips to keep the cup balanced, how this person dropped the cups so many times that he had only completed one round, how another person fell off the beam as they were getting ready to transfer their cup and saucer to be deposited and they almost face-planted on the platform. Frankie had been so intent on the comp that he had not noticed all these things that had happened around him.

            Frankie happened to look over at one point and saw Zach and Shelby in a conversation. He was glad to see it because if Zach could win her over, they wouldn’t have to worry so much about Team Ballsmashers coming after them. Shelby chose that moment to look at Frankie. She gave him an unpleasant smirk. He looked at Zach, and saw that Zach was laughing. Frankie felt a small flicker of unease, but before he could give it another thought, the door to the house was opened and Production announced an indoor lock down.

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            Much later that night, the rest of the Houseguests trickled out of the HOH room after hearing Frankie’s and Zach’s letters from home. Frankie’s had been from his sister, Ariana, and Zach’s had been from his brother, Peyton. Frankie sat on the bed re-reading his.

            Zach had already searched through his own basket, and was digging through Frankie’s.

            “It’s funny how they always give you so many packages of Fig Newtons!” Zach remarked with a laugh.

            Frankie looked up from his letter, “I know! I didn’t even put them on my list this year after they practically buried me in them during our season. I guess someone on the staff must have remembered I liked them.”

            “You are not allowed to talk about Production,” boomed Big Brother’s voice.

            Frankie laughed, “Yeah that one was for me.”

            Zach reached across the table and picked up one of the pictures that Frankie had received. It was of him and his friends. “I remember when you named the fish after all your friends. Why didn’t you do that this year?”

            “I felt bad about naming the fat, mean fish after Jon-Erik,” Frankie said with a smile.

            “When you got a letter from your sister ‘Ari’,” Zach said with small smile and shake of his head. “We had no idea who you were then.”

            “Yeah, I was just plain ol’ Frankie then.”

            “Never plain, and never old,” Zach corrected. “We just weren’t aware of how known you were to the outside world. You were our Frankie; then later we found out that you were ‘Frankie J. Grande’, and it was a jolt.”

            Frankie laid his letter aside. “You had trouble with it at first, but you got over it.”

            “Yeah. As soon as I realized you were still the same person you had been before I knew.”

            Zach walked over and sat down on the bed next to Frankie. He picked up the letter from Ariana and read it. “She writes great letters. I can feel the energy and love she is sending to you.”

            Frankie nodded, “But your brother is no slouch either! That was pretty exciting news about his golf tournament! I know it kills you to miss those.”

            Zach nodded, folded Ariana’s letter and place it back next to Frankie. “It does. I just have to keep reminding myself that I am here for my future. Even the 50K will go a long way towards…you know…hopefully marriage and stuff.” Zach finished with a smile and his cheeks flushed.

            “I was a bit surprised that you didn’t get any pictures or a letter from her.” Frankie said.

            “Her who?” Zach questioned, with a glint in his eye.

            “Your girlfriend!” Frankie said with a short laugh, “Who else would I be talking about?”

            “I don’t have a girlfriend, Frankie,” Zach said with a smile and a slight tilt to his head.

            “But, wait a minute…didn’t you just say…” Frankie fumbled with a confused look on his face.

            “I said that I am in love, locked down, and I hope to win to help pay for things that will make marriage possible. I’m not making it up; it’s not a stunt. I am sincere. You of all people should know that I’m not talking about a girl.”

            Frankie’s eyes quickly darted to the camera in an attempt to remind Zach that live feeders could hear him. Zach laughed. “It’s okay; I told my family and my friends and surprisingly, everybody was pretty much okay with it. A few have even stepped up and been very supportive. And it helps because they approve of him.”

            “Oh. That’s great, Zach! I’m very happy for you.” Frankie said, and he was truly happy for Zach. He was a little bit not so happy for himself, however. For years all Frankie had wanted was for Zach to be with him openly and Zach wouldn’t agree to it. They had many, many arguments over it and broke up more times than Frankie could count. That issue was always at the crux of every argument. Now Zach was coming out, and coming out nationally, for some other man.

            “When it’s right, it’s right, ya know?” Zach said, looking down at the floor with a grin. “I expect some people will be trying to pin labels on me now. I don’t care. They can go fuck themselves. I’m happy and I am going to do everything I can to make sure he is too, and I don’t care what anybody else thinks.”

            “That’s really great, Zach,” Frankie repeated, a bit of a loss of what to say. “So I’ll restate my question. Why didn’t you get a letter from him, or a picture?”

            “I didn’t ask him to sign a waiver. You know how it is,” Zach said, giving Frankie a look from the corner of his eye.

            “Yes. Yes, I do. Mine for a different reason, but I do understand. It keeps them off limits in general conversation,” Frankie said with a nod.

            “Well,” Zach said, standing up, “I think I am going to go downstairs and fix one of the frozen pizzas I got in my basket. Are you coming down?”

            “No, I think I want to take a shower. I love the one up here.”

            Zach laughed loudly, “Especially in that corner where the cameras can’t see you! I’ll make sure everybody stays downstairs so you can have some alone time.”

            Frankie did hide in that corner of the shower, but not for the reason that Zach had implied. He was a little bit upset and needed some time alone to figure out why. He had long ago gotten over his love for Zach and had moved on with his life, so he knew that Zach’s news was not breaking his heart. But even recognizing that fact did not diminish the pain he was feeling. After a time, he remembered when he and Derrick were on ‘The Talk’ and Derrick explained he had used different strategies with different Houseguests on BB16 based on what their motivators were. He had said Frankie’s was pride; and Frankie had agreed. He pondered that for a while and concluded that was what he was feeling upset about. For him, pride was a double-edged sword. One on side, it made him a fierce competitor, one that never wanted to let himself or others down; the other side gave him a little bit of an ego. He sighed as he felt the pain start ebbing away at this realization. He knew that he hadn’t been stabbed in the heart, but punched in the ego. Egos heal much faster than hearts.

            By the time he finished his shower, aside from a slight clenched feeling in the pit of his stomach, he was feeling much better. He toweled off and pulled on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt. He slid on a pair of flip-flops and went downstairs to join the others who were still awake.

            Zach and Shelby were sitting at the counter in the kitchen when he came down the stairs. Zach looked up and gave Frankie a huge grin. “You feel better now?”

            “Much better,” Frankie answered with a slight smile and headed into the living room. Paul, Victor, James, Cody, Paulie, and Stella were joking around, and Frankie quickly joined in. Zach came in shortly after Frankie, and sat down next to him. He put his arm around Frankie and pulled him close. Shelby walked by them and headed for bed.

            A few hours later, Frankie and Zach, along with the Calafiores went back up to the HOH room for the night. Zach had been given beers and he offered to share them. Paulie accepted but Cody and Frankie declined.

            “Aw c’mon Cody! Have a drink with us!” Paulie urged.

            “Yeah, I think it will be safe since you aren’t wearing a dinosaur costume,” Zach quipped, bring his can of beer to his lips.

            Cody froze and glanced quickly at Zach. “What do you mean?”

            “Nothing man! I’m just joking with ya!” Zach answered, his face a picture of wide-eyed innocence, “I was just offering you a beer.”

            “No thanks. I have a migraine and I took some medicine for it. I’m not supposed to drink with it.” Cody explained. “We are going to discuss noms right?” he turned to Frankie. “We might want to do that before they get too drunk, and before this headache medicine makes me too tired to think clearly.”

            “Good idea,” Frankie agreed and settled down next to where Cody was sitting on the bed. Paulie pulled a chair over to be close to the bed, and Zach sat down on the floor and rested the side of his face against Frankie’s leg.

            “I think we have to go after Team Ballsmashers for sure. Shelby put us up last week so it’s an eye for an eye.” Frankie suggested.

            They all agreed without the need for discussion. “So, that leaves the other team to nominate. Does anybody have any ideas?” Frankie asked.

            “Team Friendship,” Zach suggested.

            The other guys looked at Zach with shocked faces. “Why would we go after them?” Cody asked.

            “Big guys; good players,” Zach stated simply as if he were addressing toddlers.

            “But they’re not coming after us,” Frankie argued. “It makes no sense to go after them.”

            Zach scoffed, “Why not? It’s us or them.”

            “If they win the Veto and take themselves down, we are toast,” Cody explained. “We have to go after a team that is weak, that way if the Ballsmashers win Veto hopefully they will consider us even. If we put up two strong teams, one is bound to win and will come after us.”

            Zach looked to Paulie, “So what’s your vote on Team Friendship?”

            Paulie shrugged, “I think Cody and Frankie have a point and they were on my season so I’m friends with them. It would be hard for me to vote against them this early in the game.”

            Zach sighed, shook his head and took another drink from his can. He leaned his cheek against Frankie’s leg and asked, “Who do you see as a weak team?”

            Many teams were suggested by the four, but as each team was selected one member or another had some ties to the group. Frankie had foreseen something like this happening on the first night when he was mapping out the teams with items from his make-up bag. Finally he stated that in his opinion, the team had to be Sorority. No one was connected to them inside or outside the house, plus both of them were often finishing the comps near the bottom. No one could come up with a reason not to choose Team Sorority, so they agreed unanimously on the two teams to nominate.

            Zach got up from the floor and went to the tiny refrigerator in the room. He retrieved two beers and handed one to Paulie before opening his own.

            Frankie noticed that Cody had gone quiet and turned to check on him. Cody was having trouble keeping his eyes open. “Your medicine kicking in?” he asked quietly.

            “Mmm..yeah. I think so,” Cody mumbled with a bit of a slur in his words.

            Frankie nodded. “It’s late and I’m tired too. Let’s go sleep in the other bed.”

            Zach chugged his can of beer. “No need to go over there. I’m ready to go to bed now.”

            “Hey! I thought we were going to drink your beers tonight!” Paulie objected.

            “Let’s save the rest for after noms. That way Cody will be able to have some too,” Zach suggested, while pulling down the covers of his and Frankie’s bed.

            Paulie reluctantly agreed. “I guess it would be the nice thing to do. Right Cody?”

            Cody had already crawled into the bonus bed and was laying on his side, with his back to the others. He didn’t answer.

            Paulie gave a small laugh, “I wouldn’t want his headaches, but I wouldn’t mind having one of his pills. It takes me hours to fall asleep here.”

            Frankie had put cotton in his ears and then pulled down his eye mask as he slid down into his place in the bed. He pulled the covers up and rolled on his side, away from them. “Goodnight guys.”

            They both told him goodnight, and Zach bent down to remove his shoes. Then he slid into bed next to Frankie.

            “Wait!” Paulie exclaimed. “It gets so dark in here I will never find the bed if I shut off the light. Could you shut it off after I get in?”

            Zach agreed. It took Paulie a few minutes to finish his beer and to strip down and get into the bed. Zach got out of bed and turned off the lights, and then stumbled back to his bed. After climbing back in, he reached over and gave Frankie a hug and then dropped a kiss on his head before rolling back to his own side of the bed.

            In the darkened room, behind his eye mask, Frankie’s eyes flew open in surprise. He had agreed to a few public hugs but in the pitch black of the HOH room, there was no one to witness it. And, he had never agreed to kisses of any kind.

            He was puzzled as to Zach’s motivation for doing it. Live feeders saw that, but he was sure they were aware of the agreement Frankie and Zach had made to fool the other Houseguests. And what’s more, Zach’s boyfriend probably saw that. Frankie closed his eyes as a wave of pain hit him all over again. He thought it was surprising how much a wounded ego could feel like a broken heart.

\----------

            The next morning, Frankie and Paulie were sitting together at the counter in the kitchen eating their breakfast as Zach came down the spiral staircase from the HOH room. Paulie was telling Frankie how glad he was that he and Zach hadn’t drunk all the beers the night before because he didn’t have a hangover. Frankie raised his coffee cup in a toasting motion with a smile.

            Zach froze at the sight. He immediately flashed back to an online magazine article that he had seen. It was the Valentine’s Day edition and the editors had dedicated a section to show how celebs had celebrated the holiday. Frankie and his boyfriend’s picture was included. They were at a NYC restaurant that was known for its romantic ambiance. The tablecloth was white and red rose petals were strewn across the top.

            Frankie was wearing a black suit with very tiny pinstripes. His red bowtie matched his pocket square and they stood out against the dark suit and white button-down shirt. He and the man had raised their glasses to toast each other, while looking deeply into each other’s eyes, just as the photographer had snapped the picture. They looked very happy and very much in love.

            Zach had raged for days after seeing that picture. He kept a copy of it and looked at it every few minutes, never allowing himself to calm down. Eventually the rage passed, and then the hurt came. That man was with HIS Frankie, living the life that was supposed to be HIS! He knew that Frankie had gone on with his life as if Zach had never even existed. Ultimately, for his own sanity, he deleted the picture and tried to put it out of his mind. It took a long time before his brain would stop flashing onto it as if it was the default setting. But now, seeing Frankie toasting Paulie, it came rushing back as if no time had passed. He took a deep breath and forced that memory away. It was a lifetime ago, and things were different now. He needed to focus on his future, not his past. He had big plans, and he couldn’t lose sight of them, not for a second.

\----------

            For most of the day, Frankie and Zach were stuck in the HOH room as the other teams took turns coming to see them and plead their case as to why they shouldn’t be nominated. It was protocol, but senseless as usually an HOH already has a plan in mind on who they would nominate if they won. Occasionally these meetings would sway an HOH who was not set on their plan. Not in this case however. The next afternoon when Production announced it was time for the nomination ceremony, Frankie and Zach nominated the teams Ballsmashers and Sorority as planned.

            After the nomination ceremony, Zach steered Shelby into the bathroom to have an inconspicuous private talk. After a quick look around to reassure himself that they were alone, Zach began to speak.

            “I hope you know the nomination was all Frankie’s idea. I tried to argue with him, but Paulie and Cody sided with him. I was outnumbered. I was the one that came up with the Sorority team though to give you a better chance of winning the Veto. You know that you can beat Stella!” he stated.

            “Yeah, I know I can beat her, but I also have to face Frankie and three others,” she complained.

            “I know. But Frankie isn’t really targeting you. It is just like he said during the noms, ‘An eye for an eye’; you put us up, we have to return the favor. After you survive this week, the slate is clean,” he assured her.

            “You know I am not a Frankie fan, but he is good in comps, I’ll grant him that. So what happens when he wins again?”

            “By that time, he will have different targets, especially if your team backs off of us. I will do my best to get his mind off of you. Believe me, the last thing I want is for you to be evicted. I have big plans for the end of the game and I need you to help me with them. I don’t even care if that means I lose the $500,000.”

            Shelby beamed. “You really mean it?”

            Zach smiled, “I really do. I told you, my goal in here is not to win first place; my goal is to make sure that Frankie gets exactly what he deserves—at least what _I_ think he deserves. Others might have different opinions.”

            Shelby smothered a laugh so no one else would hear. “I am right there with you. I can’t wait to see his face!”

            “Well, for that to happen, we have to get to the end, and make sure he makes it too. It’s still a long way to go.”

            “We will make it! I will do my best to see that we do!”

            Zach nodded. “I’m working hard for it too. But, remember…it has to be me who pulls the trigger, and it has to be at the end.”

            Shelby grinned and nodded. “Oh I hope we make it to the final three and one of us picks the other over him!”

            Zach gave a slight nod, “Me. It has to be me who wins.”

            Shelby sighed. “I won’t promise now that I am going to throw the final HOH, but I do understand your reasons. It doesn’t really matter who wins though, as long as we are the final two. But, this week has me worried. I don’t know anybody who would use the Veto to save me and Alex.”

            Zach leaned back with a smile. “That’s not a problem. I will convince whoever wins it that Frankie wants the noms to stay the same.”

            “Okay, but the vote?”

            “They’ll vote the way the house votes, which is how the HOH wants. That’s the way it usually goes. I know on your season America had a nom and a vote, but this is regular ‘Big Brother’ so it is up to us. All I have to do is get Frankie to tell everybody to keep you and Alex. It won’t be hard, don’t forget—he is the main HOH, but I am also an HOH.”

            “You know we aren’t official until we name our alliance. I was thinking about something like ‘Dream Destroyers’. What do you think?” Shelby asked, with a worried frown.

            Zach could tell that the name meant a lot to her. He nodded, “Yeah, I love it.” He relaxed against the back of his seat. He had her—signed, sealed, and delivered.

\----------

            Frankie won the Veto. It was a three-tiered maze similar to the one Frankie had won on BB16. He didn’t use it so the nominations were kept the same. His thoughts originally had been to push for the Ballsmashers to be evicted, but the Sorority team became troublesome during their campaigning, they were both whiners and criers, and they were extremely bitchy. By Thursday, everyone was sick of the sight of them. They were unanimously voted out.

            As the Houseguests stood in front of the Memory Wall, waiting for the picture to fade from color to black and white, they could hear the sounds from the live audience. A movement caught Frankie’s eye and he glanced in Zach’s direction in time to see Shelby and Zach exchange a look. She gave him a little knock on his arm with her shoulder as she walked by. Frankie had a sick feeling that he had made a mistake by pushing for the Sorority Team to be evicted.


	7. Chapter Seven

            After witnessing numerous interactions between Zach and Shelby that confused Frankie, and that kiss on the head that Zach had given him, Frankie’s guard had gone up. He wasn’t sure what Zach was doing, but he knew it was game related. He felt like Zach was using either him or Shelby. Frankie decided he would go along with it as long as they were entangled together as a team, but the second the team twist was over, he was going to rethink his strategy.

            After Team Sorority had been evicted, the HOH comp was held. It was ‘Even’ week, so it was Zach’s turn to play. The comp consisted of rounds of questions dealing with the numbers of objects inside the house. Zach lasted a few rounds before he was out. Luckily Team Zankie was able to avoid being Have-Nots because other teams were out before him. Zach sat down on the seat next to Frankie and began to whisper apologies. Frankie waved them away. He was more interested in finding out who would be the new HOH.

            It came as a surprise to almost everyone that the final two standing were Victor and Paulie. Frankie felt himself begin to relax. He didn’t think Team Zankie was in danger from either one. He looked over at Zach and gave him a small nod to let him know it was okay.

            The final question was about the number of green apples in the basket by the door in the kitchen. Victor answered six and Paulie answered four. The correct answer was four and Frankie happily hung the HOH key around Paulie’s neck.

            Everyone surrounded Cody and Paulie, congratulating them on their win. Frankie felt someone’s fingers lightly tickle the small of his back and he startled. He turned to see that it was Zach at the exact moment Zach pulled his hand away.

            That night, the Calafiores invited Frankie and Zach to share their room. They agreed, but Frankie was in the middle of a conversation with a small group of the other Houseguests, so he said he would join them later. Zach started to go upstairs, but at the foot of the steps, he turned and called back to Frankie.

            “I may already be asleep before you come up. I wanted to say ‘goodnight’ now, just in case,” he said, holding his arms open.

            Frankie was confused by this. He was going to be joining them up in the HOH room in just a few minutes; no way would Zach be asleep by then. He got up and walked into Zach’s open arms. He gave him a half-hearted hug and started to step away. Zach pulled him closer and whispered in his ear, “Where are you, Frankie?”

            Frankie pulled back and frowned at him. “I’m right here; what do you mean?”

            “No,” Zach whispered. “Your body is here but your mind is somewhere else. You made a deal—two public hugs a day—but you aren’t living up to it. You didn’t hug me this morning, and now you are barely touching me. People will notice.”

            “Honestly, I think this is ridiculous. People don’t care if we hug or not. Nobody has said a word to me about it,” Frankie objected in a whisper.

            “That’s because we headed off the rumors as soon as I heard them; hug me like you mean it, there are people watching,” Zach instructed.

            Frankie pulled Zach in tighter and Zach squeezed him back. Then Zach pulled away and jogged up the stairs while Frankie returned to the group he had been speaking to. James mentioned that it was interesting to see that they were still so close after all these years. The others seemed intent on hearing Frankie’s answer.

            “Oh yeah. We are best friends; at home, we talk all the time,” he parroted the lie that he and Zach had decided on using long ago.

            Zakiyah smiled. “You know, I always thought that wasn’t strictly the truth based on the lack of social media interactions between the two of you. Glad to see I was wrong. The two of you glow after you hug; it’s like it recharges your batteries.”

            Frankie was surprised to hear that people really were watching them. Zach had been right. But he didn’t give much credit to the idea of them glowing after a hug. Years ago maybe they did, but that was long dead for both of them now.

\----------

            In the morning, Frankie crept out of the HOH room as soon as the music began. He didn’t want to wake the other guys who had stayed up drinking beers that Cody and Paulie had received in their HOH baskets.

            Victor was up and waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. They moved to a clear space and began to Salsa dance. Other Houseguests joined in, Frankie and Victor had been teaching some of them the basic steps to the dance. Big Brother, making note of the preferences of the Houseguests, often played at least one song that was suitable for Salsa dancing.

            After the music, most of the others had returned to their beds. Frankie saw that the door had been opened so they would have use of the backyard. He didn’t want to waste time inside sleeping. He made a pot of coffee and fixed himself a bowl of oatmeal. He took a cup of coffee and his hot cereal outside to eat. Donny grabbed a cup of coffee and joined him.

            They enjoyed the quiet morning together. The last time they had been in the house, even though they both on Team America, they hardly ever spent any time together. This season things were different because they really knew each other and their backgrounds. Frankie was surprised to find that he actually enjoyed chatting with Donny because he had a quick mind and was able to read situations clearly.

            Less than an hour later, other Houseguests began to appear outside, and by 11:30, almost everyone was out there. Except for the three who were in the HOH room, presumably still sleeping.

            Several of the Houseguests had already put on their swimsuits and staked out areas to lie in the sun. Frankie hurried in to put on his. He took his time, standing in front of his open drawer, deciding on which one he was in the mood to wear. He had several that he liked, a few that were new, and one that he had liked to wear during his time on CBB. It was black with hot pink trim. Production had requested that he and Zach wear predominately pink and blue. He mentally rolled his eyes over it. If they said anything, he would point out that it was trimmed in hot pink.

            He went to the bathroom to put on his suit and then headed back outside. Some of the women were lying out on the towels spread on the fake grass. He decided he would prefer to use one of the reclining lawn chairs. He settled into one of them and pulled his sunglasses down to protect his eyes. He had just randomly grabbed a pair when he was digging in his drawer for a bathing suit, but he grinned when he realized the frame was blue. He knew he wouldn’t be called into the DR and scolded since he was wearing both colors.

            Some of the guys, having spent the early part of the day working out, pulled their chairs over to sit near Frankie. Everybody was in good spirits, and Victor picked up Sammy the Loan Shark and began harassing ‘Frank’ for his next payment. Frankie adjusted his chair so he could sit up, and pulled off his sunglasses. He played along with Victor and soon they had all the guys rolling with laughter. Some of the women who were sunbathing had turned their towels a bit so they could watch too.

            Cody, Paulie, and Zach finally emerged from the house and wandered over to sit near the group. Cody and Paulie joined in with the fun, but Zach was quiet. Frankie remembered that it always took Zach a while to get fully awake, especially after a night of drinking, but he mentally kicked himself for remembering facts about Zach.

            Frankie’s stomach growled and Jace sitting next him laughed. “Me too!” he said.

            Frankie nodded and got up from his seat. “I’m going to grab some lunch. You want me to bring you out something too?”

            “Yes, thanks! Just bring me some of whatever you are having. I’m easy,” Jace said.

            Frankie struck a pose, hand on his hip that was popped, and batted his eyelashes, “My favorite type of man is an ‘easy’ man!” They all laughed and Frankie made his way inside.

            Donny was sitting alone in the living room. “Hey Donny!” Frankie called as he walked by, “Are you okay?”

            “Yeah, I’m fine. It just got a bit too hot out there for me.”

            “I’m going to fix something to eat. Do you need anything?” Frankie asked, pushing the button outside the storage room door.

            “No, I just ate. But thank you for asking!” Donny answered.

            Big Brother unlocked the storage room door and Frankie pulled it open. Suddenly Zach ran up behind him. “Hold the door, Frankie!” he called.

            Frankie caught it at the last moment and pushed it open for Zach. “So, are you missing CBB or something?” Zach asked as soon as he walked in.

            “Hmm?” Frankie gave Zach a puzzled look.

            “Your banana hammock,” Zach said, pointing to Frankie’s Speedo. “Isn’t it one you wore there?”

            “Oh, yeah. It’s one of my favorites,” Frankie replied, opening the refrigerator door and looking inside.

            “I’m surprised you don’t just put a piece of duct tape over the head of your dick and call it a bathing suit.” Zach mumbled.

            “Sorry, what? I couldn’t hear you,” Frankie said, turning to look at him.

            “Nothing. So, do you still keep in touch with Bear, Lewis, and Ricky?”

            Frankie shrugged and looked back inside the refrigerator. “I never did with Lewis and Bear. I’m still good friends with Ricky though.”

            Zach opened up the upper cabinet door and searched through the medications that Big Brother supplied, and rolled his eyes. He looked over and saw Frankie removing a package of sliced roast beef and a carton of hummus from the refrigerator. “What are you making?”

            Frankie sat the items on the counter and reached over and picked up an avocado. “I’m making sandwiches for me and Jace. Would you like me to make you one?”

            “Are you making the sandwich that I created for you?” Zach asked in surprise, walking to the counter, noting that Frankie had collected the necessary ingredients.

            Frankie laughed, “You mean the sandwich you created for Derrick. You only gave it to me when he refused it.”

            “What? No! I made it for you!” Zach insisted.

            Frankie laughed and put his hand on his hip, “No you didn’t! I always thought you had but I found an old clip on YouTube. It doesn’t matter—you did a great job on it. It’s a kick ass sandwich.”

            “I see,” Zach nodded, looking across the space at the cabinet door he had left open. He walked over to close it. “And so now you are going to make _my_ sandwich to give to Jace. Funny, of all of them I figured it would be Victor, since apparently he is ‘Daddy’ now.”

            Frankie frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

            “Victor,” Zach said, glaring at Frankie, “You called Victor ‘Daddy’.”

            “No I didn’t!” Frankie denied.

            “Oh yes you did! The first morning we were here and the two of you danced together. You fucking called him ‘Daddy’!”

            Frankie waved his hand as a dismissal, “I don’t remember it, but if you say so,” and began to gather up the sandwich ingredients to take to the kitchen.

            “Yeah, it’s no big deal. Just like it is no big deal that Paul thinks you’re beautiful and Cody and Paulie are always hanging all over you but you flinch when I barely touch you,” Zach said, his voice was harsh, and getting louder with each word, “And now you are trying to reel Jace in by making him _my_ sandwich!”

            Frankie sat the food back down on the counter. “What exactly are you trying to say?” Frankie asked with a slight sharpness in his voice and a tiny squaring of his shoulders.

            “I’m not _trying_ to say anything, I’m flat out telling you to knock it off!” he advanced on Frankie until they were only inches apart. “You’re **MINE** ” he declared in a voice only a decibel or so below a bellow.

            Frankie tried to step back but the counter was behind him. “What the fuck do you mean by that?” Frankie yelled back just as loudly. “I’m not **YOURS**! You don’t own me!”

            Amanda came to the house to use the restroom and heard them as soon as she walked inside. She hurried into the living room and saw Donny sitting there.

            “What’s going on?!! Who is that?” she asked.

            Donny shrugged, “It’s Frankie and Zach. Sounds like they may be arguing.”

            “May be?!!” she asked, incredulously, “It very obvious that they are!” She hurried over to the storage room door and pushed the button. The light stayed red, so she pushed it again. Big Brother still would not let her in.

            She banged on the door and yelled, “Knock it off you assholes! We can hear you out here!”

            Zach blinked at the sound of her muffled voice coming through the door. He took a deep, shaky breath and slowly exhaled as he backed away from Frankie. He licked his lips and then looked down at the floor. “No, I don’t own you, I didn’t mean to imply that,” he said, in a much lower voice. “I meant that we are on the same team. You can’t be building alliances behind my back.”

            “I’m not.” Frankie stated flatly, anger still evident in his voice and posture, “I am working my social game. You know, like being nice to other people. You should try it sometime.”

            “Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” Zach said, and he pulled open the door and stormed out. Amanda was still standing there as he hurried by. She walked into the storage room.

            “What was that all about?” she asked.

            “I have no idea,” Frankie said as he put the food back into the refrigerator. “He’s a lunatic,” he said as he slammed the refrigerator door.

            “Whatever it was, it must have been good for the feeds. They wouldn’t let me in here to stop it,” she said. This was followed by the announcement by Big Brother, “You are not allowed to talk about Production!”

            “Are you okay?” she asked.

            “Yeah, just pissed. I’ll be fine,” he started to walk to the door. “Shit! I came in here to make lunch.” He headed over to the refrigerator and got the food back out.

            “I was on my way to the bathroom when I heard you guys. I could hear you all the way in the kitchen. I think it was only me and Donny who heard anything though. You guys need to try to get along. If the rest of them suspect that you are a divided team, they are going to swarm like sharks smelling blood,” she advised as she left the storage room.

            Frankie followed on her heels, carrying the ingredients to make his and Jace’s sandwiches. As he walked by Donny, the older man lowered his head, and pretended to study his fingernails. It was just as well because Frankie would have been hard-pressed to explain what had just happened.

            His hands worked automatically while his brain went back over the fight he and Zach had just had. It made no sense to him at all. Zach had drunk a lot the night before and probably had a hangover, but to blow up like that didn’t equate with simple hangover grumpiness. It was more than that. Not that fighting was a new thing between them, because it wasn’t. When they were together they used to fight like that, and then spend hours making up. Frankie’s lips suddenly went dry so he grabbed a glass and filled it with water. He chugged it down and forced those thoughts out of his mind.

            He walked outside carrying the sandwiches. He handed one to Jace and walked over to the sofa in the shade and sat down. His eyes automatically searched for Zach without consciously being aware of it. He spotted him at the weight bench doing arm curls. Shelby was sitting near him and seemed to be talking nonstop.

            Frankie took a bite of his sandwich and recoiled at the sour taste. He looked at Jace and saw him eating his with no problem. Frankie peeled back the bread and saw that while his mind was wandering, his hands had made a turkey with mustard sandwich, instead of the roast beef, hummus, avocado sandwich that he had intended to make. There was nothing wrong with it; it just wasn’t the taste he was expecting. He ate it, but he didn’t enjoy it. Afterwards it lay heavy on his stomach for hours.

            There was something that kept niggling at the back of his mind. Every time the thought tried to come forward, Frankie pushed it away. But it was there, lurking in the background. It bothered him all day and into late in the evening. He decided he needed to keep busy so he set about washing the mountain of dirty dishes that had accumulated. However, he found that even while his hands were occupied, his mind kept latching onto the thought that he had been pushing away. He sighed and allowed it to come forward so he could examine it better.

            When Zach was in his face, screaming that Frankie was his, for an instant Frankie had thought that Zach was going to grab him. Grab him and kiss him. But that was just…no. It was impossible. They were over and had been for ages. They both had new lives. Besides, Zach had a boyfriend that he loved enough to come out for. Frankie felt another ego stab at the thought. He knew that Zach would never mess that up, especially for a quickie with an ex in the storage room, for the entire world to see.

            “Scoot over, I’ll help,” Zach said, coming from behind him.

            “That’s okay, I don’t need help. I can do it,” Frankie declined.

            “Stop. Let me help,” Zach said quietly, as he rinsed the dishes that Frankie had washed.

            They worked together in silence.

            After they were done with the kitchen chores, Frankie walked to the bedroom with Zach on his heels. Frankie pulled out a shirt from his drawer.

            Frankie took off his shirt that had gotten wet and replaced it with a dry one.

            “Frankie?” Zach said.

            “Don’t. I don’t want to hear it,” Frankie said, and started to walk around Zach to leave the bedroom.

            Zach lightly grabbed Frankie’s arm to stop him. “Please, just listen. I got paranoid and I lost my mind. I shouldn’t have accused you of going behind my back to make alliances. I was wrong, and I’m sorry for what I said.”

            Frankie looked down at the floor for a second, and then gave a big sigh. “Fine! I’ve lost my mind in here before, so I know how easily it can happen. In the future though, maybe you could ask me, instead of accusing me, okay?”

            Zach nodded, eagerly. “Yes! I promise! So, you forgive me?”

            Frankie rolled his eyes, “I just said I did. It doesn’t mean I’m over it but I understand how this game can mess with your mind. And one more thing, just for the record…I did not flinch when you touched me. It startled me. We agreed on two public hugs a day so I wasn’t expecting you to randomly touch me.”

            “Oh,” Zach said softly, and then brightened, “So it didn’t make you mad, or disgust you, right?”

            “No, but I don’t think it’s wise to do things like that.”

            “Okay. But why?” Zach asked. “We are trying to convince everybody that we are best friends, right?”

            Frankie shrugged, “The two hugs a day should be enough for that. Does your boyfriend know about us?”

            Zach nodded, “Yeah, he knows everything.”

            “The real truth, or the stories we tell people?”

            “The real thing. Why, what would that matter?” Zach asked, bemused.

            Frankie shrugged, “I don’t know. If it were me, I think it would bother me to see my boyfriend and his ex hugging and touching each other.”

            Zach looked up at the camera that was mounted on the wall. “No, there are cameras and microphones everywhere; everything is out in the open. I think if a person was going to cheat, it would be secretive.”

            Frankie shrugged and then gave a curt nod, “I guess that’s true.” He absentmindedly reached up and rubbed his shoulder.

            Zach noticed the movement. “Are you hurting?”

            Frankie shook his head ‘no’, but then sighed, “Just a bit. It’s nothing.”

            “Come on,” Zach said and gently pulled Frankie down the walkway between the rows of beds. He stopped at theirs. “Lay down on your stomach.”

            “What?!” Frankie asked, astounded.

            “I’m going to make it better,” Zach said. He looked at Frankie’s shocked face and giggled, “Stop! I’m going to give you a back rub!”

            Frankie lay down on the bed and Zach straddled his back, hovering a bit above Frankie, and set to work rubbing away the tension from Frankie’s back, neck, and shoulders. After he had been at it for a while, Donny walked into the room and made his way over to his bed.

            “Hey Donny!” Zach called, “Early night?”

            “Nah. Sometimes I just like to have some alone time to think; relax a bit before sleeping. I pick something nice to think about. Not home, because that gets me homesick. Tonight, I am going to think about cake.”

            Zach leaned over and hissed in Frankie’s ear, “Cake? Is that code like ‘apple pie’ for ‘America’s Team’?” He pushed himself away from Frankie’s back and sat down on the mattress next to him.

            Frankie rolled to his side and looked at Zach, “I have no idea why he is talking about cake. I swear!” he whispered.

            Zach looked at him suspiciously. Frankie crossed his heart and whispered, “If I am lying, may Ariana’s next album be a flop.”

            Zach’s face cleared and he nodded. He raised his voice so Donny could hear him, “Why cake, Donny?”

            “I like cake,” he said, levering himself on his elbow and facing the Zankie bed. “Have you ever thought about how important cake is? Every time there is some kind of celebration, the star of the main table is the cake. Birthdays, holidays, graduations, showers, weddings, even the midway party here has a special cake.”

            Frankie agreed. “You’re right. Our family always has beautiful cakes created for important occasions.”

            “We do, if it is really important. Otherwise, Mom makes them,” Zach added.

            “Same here,” Donny agreed. “My mom made the best tasting cakes! But they weren’t that pretty; well…you know what I mean. I won a cake once when I was a kid; cakewalk at the county fair. It was a chocolate cake with white frosting. There were cherries on the top. I sure did love that cake; probably because I won it more than the taste of it.”

            “What’s your favorite kind of cake?” Frankie asked.

            Donny leaned back, staring at the ceiling and stroking his beard. “I know you are asking me what flavor I like best, but I’m pretty easy to please. I do like ‘happy cakes’ the best though.”

            Zach gave a small laugh, “`Happy cakes’? What are they?”

            “Picture eating your favorite kind of cake at a funeral. It still tastes good, but everybody is sad so it isn’t great. Now picture eating cake that isn’t your favorite, but it is at a fun occasion like a graduation or a wedding and everybody is happy. That piece of cake is going to taste great,” Donny explained.

            “Yeah, that makes sense,” Zach nodded.

            Frankie climbed around Zach and once his feet met the floor he stood up. “Where are you going?” Zach asked, looking up at him.

            “I’m going to see if we have snack cakes. All this talk about cake has given me a craving. Bad carbs, but I’ll count this as a cheat day.”

            “There are some in the storage room. I saw them earlier. That’s probably what made me think about cake,” Donny said.

            “Wait up, I’ll come with you. I want one too!” Zach called, getting to his feet.

            “No, that’s okay. I’ll bring you one. Donny, do you want one?” Frankie asked.

            “Yes! Thank you! I would love to share a piece of cake with you boys!” Donny said with a grin. “Any time you boys have cake, I hope you will invite me to share it with you!”

            “Sure, but I have to warn you, I don’t eat it very often,” Frankie said as he walked out of the room.

            “That’s okay, I can wait,” Donny mumbled to himself. He looked over at Zach and grinned. “Why don’t you come over and eat on Devin’s side of the bed? If we get crumbs on the sheet, it will drive him insane.”

            Zach laughed loudly and walked over to sit on Devin’s side of Donny’s bed. Frankie joined them minutes later, with three individually-wrapped chocolate cakes.

\----------

            Paulie, as the winner for the Calafiore Team, nominated Team Nolan and Team Jatalie for eviction. Austin won the Veto, and although everyone was expecting him to use it to save the Nolans, he didn’t. He claimed that his girlfriend at home would not have liked for him to use it to save Liz. During the live eviction, the Nolans were evicted by a unanimous vote.


	8. Chapter Eight

            The HOH competition was a version of the game Plinko. Each competitor was given three chips to use on the board. At the end of the game, the teams with the most chips in their slots would be Have-Nots for the week. The team with the fewest chips would be the HOH. There was no way to play it strategically as it was a game that seemed based on chaos theory. Even if you did the same thing every time, you were likely to get a different result. At the end of the game, Paul, for Team Friendship, was the winner. The losing teams were Zankie and BroCode.

            There really wasn’t anything Frankie could have done differently to change the outcome, but he was still kicking himself over it, as he, Zach, and Team BroCode went into the Have-Not room together.

            “At least it’s not cold in here,” Zach remarked. “Our season really sucked!”

            Jace nodded. “Ours wasn’t great with the dental chairs, but it wasn’t as bad as yours. I can’t deal with cold.”

            Frankie climbed into one of the cups, sat down with his legs criss-crossed, and cupped his chin in one hand, his elbow resting on his knee. With his free hand he plucked at the lint balls that were on the blanket.

            Zach watched him for a bit. “Stop beating yourself up about it. It was a game of luck, not skill. There was nothing you could have done differently.”

            “My chip was the last one in our slot! If it had landed in any other slot, we wouldn’t be here right now!” Frankie said, angrily.

            Jace tried, but failed, to suppress a laugh. “Sorry Frankie!” he said, “But it was one of those moments you just kind of have to see to believe. I know it feels terrible, but it was kind of amazing the way that chip basically just dropped straight down from the top all the way to your slot.”

            Frankie looked at Jace, then at Austin, and finally to Zach. He could see that Austin and Zach were doing their best to hold in their laughter. “Go ahead and laugh. I don’t want either of you to burst a blood vessel from stifling it.”

            Soon their laughter combined with Jace’s. Frankie still didn’t find it funny; however, he did enjoy making other people laugh. His posture relaxed and the scowl left his face. He even smiled a little bit. It was true what Zach had said. There was really was nothing he could have done differently.

            “I know you feel bad, Frankie,” Austin said, “Just be glad you aren’t me.” He got into one of the cups, lay down, and draped his legs over the top of the cup. His feet were only a few inches from the floor. “I have to sleep like this because I can’t sleep curled up.”

            It reminded Frankie of a small child trying to sit on a piece of furniture and their feet not quite reaching the ground. He laughed at the sight. “Okay, you do have it worse,” he admitted.

            Frankie got out of his teacup bed and headed to the kitchen. “I am going to make us some slop bars for the morning,” he called over his shoulder. He was mildly surprised that Zach didn’t follow him.

            While Frankie was in the kitchen, preparing the slop bars, he kept watch on the teams that were going upstairs to talk to Paul and Victor in the HOH room. It made Frankie nervous. He really had no idea which teams Paul and Victor might choose to go after. He had spent a lot of time with them, but they didn’t confide in him much. He hardly ever saw Zach with either of them, and this didn’t bode well for their chances.

            Shortly after he placed the slop bars into the oven to bake, Zach came into the kitchen. “Do you have a minute?” he asked.

            “Yeah, I have a few before I have to take the slop bars out. What’s up?”

            “I want your opinion on something, come with me?” Zach requested.

            Frankie followed Zach into the Have-Not room where he saw that Zach had pulled two of the cups together. Frankie could see that by putting their legs through the openings of each of the cups, they would be able to stretch out. The only problem in the design was that they would have to lay pretty close together for it to work.

            “What do you think?” Zach asked excitedly.

            “Uh…I don’t know. Are we allowed to do this?”

            “I checked. Nothing in the rules saying we have to leave the beds where they were, and nothing saying we can’t share. And they didn’t yell at me when I did it. Try it out!” Zach offered, almost dancing in his excitement.

            Frankie kicked off his shoes and climbed into the bed. Zach had padded the opening for their legs with one of the pillows, which made it very comfortable, but would mean they would have to share one to sleep on. Zach climbed in the bed on the other side and lay next to Frankie.

            “There’s not a lot of room, but I think it’s okay. What do you think?” he asked.

            Frankie gave a little shrug, then nodded, “As long as we aren’t breaking any rules, I think it is okay. At least we won’t have to lay all curled up for a week, or hang over the sides like Austin. Maybe they will do their beds this way too.”

            “Nope. Austin was in here when I made this. He said he wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping so close to Jace. Silly really because there is plenty of room; look, we are laying here and there is a lot of space between us.”

            Frankie determined that there was maybe three inches between their shoulders. Not exactly what he would call ‘a lot of space’. “Austin is pretty big though, so maybe there wouldn’t be the same amount of space between him and Jace.”

            Zach shrugged. “Their loss. We will be sleeping better than they will.”

            Frankie sat up and made his way out of the bed, “I have to go check the slop bars. This was a good idea, I’m glad you thought of it,” Frankie said as he slipped his shoes back on, “We need to go visit Paul and Victor in the HOH room soon. I’m not sure where their heads are at for noms.”

            When they went to the HOH room later that night, Paul immediately stated that he had wanted to invite Team Zankie to share his and Victor’s HOH room that week, but couldn’t because they were Have-Nots. Frankie felt his tension ease a bit. Of course he knew that people say a lot of things they don’t mean in the Big Brother house, but this sounded sincere to him. He wouldn’t feel totally safe until eviction night. That wasn’t anything new though. In his previous season, and now in this one, he never felt entirely safe for the week unless he was the HOH.

            Paul must have meant what he said because during the nomination ceremony, he nominated Teams Calafiore and BroCode. Paulie did not take the news well because his team had won HOH twice already, and were in on the decision-making process with Team Zankie during their HOH, and he had shot down the idea of nominating Team Friendship each time. Luckily for Team Calafiore, Zakiyah won the Veto and used it to take them off the block, which caused arguments between her and DaVonne. Soon arguments were flaring up all over the house between various Houseguests over all kinds of issues. Often during the seasons there is a time when tempers begin to fray. It had come early on this season, and Frankie assumed that it was because of the increased number of the Houseguests, and the team twist. He felt that it was best to steer clear of the squabbles, preferring to spend most of his time in the Have-Not room. Other Houseguests who also wished to avoid the arguments, would trickle in from time to time. Aside from the “tea room” as the old beehive was now called, the Have-Not room was the only small, seclude room in the house. Zach liked keeping up with the arguments so he would watch them and then come back to the Have-Not room and report what he heard to Frankie and any of the others who had gathered there.

            Team Amandy had been the replacement nom, and while not thrilled about it, they didn’t have a personal relationship with either Paul or Victor. They handled their nomination better than Paulie had. He was still angry with it even after being removed from the block.

            Zach’s and Frankie’s sleeping arrangement had worked well all week. Although the bed was tiny, they each managed to stay out of the other one’s sleeping space. The beds pulled together was the shape of a figure 8, but even so, it reminded Frankie of a tiny version of the bird’s nest bed they had slept on in their season’s HOH room.

            The last morning, Frankie awoke to the sound of a camera whirring furiously. The music wasn’t playing, and with his sleeping mask on he couldn’t see. He knew that something must be going on, so he listened intently. He became conscious of Zach’s arm across his chest, and his face buried in the hollow spot of Frankie’s neck between his shoulder and chin. By the sound of Zach’s breathing, Frankie could tell he was sleeping. Frankie knew he could elbow Zach and get him to move over. But he didn’t. Later on he would analyze it and not come up with a satisfactory answer to why he didn’t. All he knew was that it felt comforting and safe, which is very rare and very welcomed in the house. He went back to sleep until the morning music woke him up again. The music caused Zach to stir and roll back onto his other side.

            During Thursday’s live show, Julie announced that it was a double elimination week. Team Amandy were voted out during the first elimination. ‘Even’ players went out to play for the next HOH and Austin won. He quickly nominated Team Friendship and Team Double D for eviction. The Veto was won by Victor, who used it to take Team Friendship down from the block. Austin replaced them with Team Calafiore. The Houseguests didn’t have much chance to talk about anything before it was time to vote again. Team Zankie were pretty much in the dark as to who the other teams were voting for. They voted for Team Double D to be eliminated, although they hated to do that to Donny. They were the only ones who voted that way, and Team Calafiore where the next victims of the elimination.

            It was now the ‘Odd’ team members turn to play for the next HOH. It was a version of their annual slip-and-slide competition. During his season, Frankie had lost this comp to Caleb. He looked across the lanes to take in his competition and tried to gauge who would be the toughest to beat. He saw Alex, Jace, Donny, Paul, Natalie, and Zakiyah. He had previously noted that Alex and Natalie had very good balance; they were the ones he thought would be his main threats.

            The instructions were pretty much the same as they always were. You had to scoop up liquid at one end of the lane and pour it into a container at the other end. A ping-pong ball inside the container would slowly be elevated to the top, and the first person to retrieve the ball and press the buzzer would be the next HOH. There was a smaller container next to the large one, and if the players chose to go try for it, once the ping-pong ball was retrieved, they would be given a larger scoop to use to fill the big container. The only change in the instructions was that the team had to decide together which container their player was going to go for before the start of the competition.

            “So, what are your thoughts?” Zach asked, standing near to Frankie and speaking quietly so no one could overhear.

            “I don’t want to waste time on the little one. I didn’t on our season and it was worth $5,000 so I certainly don’t want to do it just for a bigger scoop,” Frankie said quietly and then took a drink out of his water bottle.

            Zach nodded. “Not surprised. I figured that was what you were going to do.”

            Frankie lowered the bottle and dabbed at a drop of water that had dribbled onto his chin. “So, are you okay with it?”

            Zach gave a small laugh and said, “Like you always say: ‘Go Grande or Go Home’!” and gave Frankie a hug.

            Frankie grinned and then turned to survey his opponents again. He noticed that a lot of the teams seemed to be arguing. Frankie assumed that they were having problems agreeing on which container to go after. He knew that this was going to increase the adrenalin of his opponents which might give them a fast start, but once it burned off, they were going to slump. This might make them easier to beat in the long run.

            He turned back to face Zach. “I never expected to say this, but I’m glad we are on a team together.”

            Zach blinked in shock. “You are? Good! Um…why?”

            Frankie laughed at Zach’s shock, “Because we aren’t arguing and it looks like just about everybody else is. It’s better to go into a comp focused on it, not on something a teammate said in the heat of an argument.”

            Zach smiled. “No reason to argue. You have played this comp before so you know it. Plus, you are a competition beast! I know that you are going to win this.”

            Frankie grinned, “I’m going to do my best.”

            And he did. The comp lasted for two hours and forty-seven minutes. There were too many falls to count amongst the competitors. As Frankie had predicted, many of the players started out strong, but began to lose steam fairly quickly; and as Zach predicted, Frankie was the winner.

            Later that night in the HOH room, they read their letters to the other Houseguests, and shared a few things out of their baskets with them. One by one the others left until Frankie and Zach were alone. Zach had already searched through his basket and was now rummaging around in Frankie’s. He looked over at Frankie who was lying on the bed with his legs propped up on pillows and his eyes closed. He had bandages on both of this knees and another one on his left elbow. He had placed pain relieving patches on the inside of both his thighs.

            “You have some good stuff in your basket,” Zach commented.

            “Eat whatever you want,” Frankie offered in a tired voice.

            “No, I don’t want anything; I was just going to bring you something if you wanted it.”

            “No thanks. Too tired,” he sighed and then slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position. “On second thought, could you bring me my make-up bag?”

            Zach brought it over quickly, suspecting what Frankie was going to do. He handed it to Frankie and sat down on the other side of the bed to watch.

            Frankie reached in his bag and pulled out seven containers. He put one off to the side and began to arrange and rearrange the other six. Zach watched quietly for a while, trying to determine what teams each container represented. He knew without being told that the mascara Frankie had put to the side represented them.

            After a time, Frankie looked up and noticed Zach watching. “Just figuring out our options,” he said. He arranged the containers in a line and touched each one in turn, “Ballsmashers, BroCode, Double D, Friendship, Jatalie, and Queens.” He picked up the third container in the line. “This is Double D. I would like to get rid of Devin, but I don’t want to do that to Donny, agree?” Zach nodded, so Frankie continued as he touched two more containers, “BroCode and Friendship,” he named them. “I’d like to keep the option open to work with some of them in the future, after the team twist is over.”

            “Do you think it will end soon?” Zach asked, still looking at the containers on the bed.

            “I think it’s going to have to,” Frankie stated, “We are down to fourteen people now, and after this week it will be twelve. They usually start the jury at eleven. If it is going to be a nine person jury like it has been in previous years, I think this might be the last week of it.” Frankie pushed the two containers to the side. “This leaves Ballsmashers, Jatalie, and Queens. Do you have a problem with getting rid of any of them?”

            “Nope. I’m fine with whoever goes, as long as it’s not us!”

            “Are you sure? I thought maybe you and Shelby were getting close,” Frankie said, looking down at his hand that held the eyeliner that represented the Ballsmashers.

            Zach scoffed, “Shelby? No! I only talk to her occasionally and that’s because you asked me to on the first day.”

            Frankie nodded. “Honestly, of all of them, I would like to get rid of Jatalie. I don’t know if you have noticed but Natalie has been finishing near the top in almost every competition. She’s a much stronger competitor than James, but ‘The Wall’ comp may be coming up soon. He kills that. He only lost on 18 because Nicole begged him to let her win. I don’t think he will make the same mistake twice. Ballsmashers would be my second choice. They are smart, strong, and have good social skills. They are dangerous. The Queens are the weakest of the three teams.”

            “So, do you think we should pit strong against strong, or strong against weak?” Zach asked.

            Frankie sighed. “I think we should use the same strategy as before: strong vs weak.”

            Zach nodded, “So noms will be Jatalie and Queens, with Ballsmashers up if one goes down, right?”

            “Yeah, I think that’s how we should do it. Looks like we are going to get fresh blood on our hands,” Frankie said.

            “Suits me. I’m not worried about it. I am a bit worried about something else though,” Zach said.

            “What’s that?”

            “When the team twist ends, you and me, are we still going to work together?”

            Frankie’s jaw dropped in shock, “I had assumed so. Why, is that a problem?”

            Zach grinned, happily, “Nope! I was hoping we would. Zankie ‘til the end! Are we going to invite anyone up here to share the room?”

            Frankie pursed his lips together and gave a slight shake of his head. “I don’t think that would be smart. It was okay with Paulie and Cody because everyone knew we would work with them. I would rather select individuals to align with after the team thing is over, that way we aren’t stuck with people we don’t want to be with.”

            Zach agreed. Frankie began to gather up his make-up and put the containers back into his bag. Zach turned on the spy screen and saw that some of the Houseguests were still up.

            “I think I’m going to go downstairs and mess with people’s heads. I love power!” Zach said, laughing. “You coming down?”

            Frankie shook his head, “No, I think I am going to bed. It’s been a long day and my legs are screaming in pain.”

            “Is there anything I can do, or bring you that will help?”

            “No. I just need to rest a bit. I would feel bad if it was just me, but I don’t see anybody from the comp up and about on the screen. I imagine everyone is feeling the same way tonight.”

            “It did look like a bad one,” Zach agreed.

            “It was. I never skip leg day, I dance all the time, and I do soul cycle. My legs feel trashed. I can’t imagine how the others are feeling.” Frankie said as he slid back down in his place on the bed, propped his legs back up on the pillows, and pulled his eye mask on. “You can leave the light on so you can see your way to bed later.”

            Zach left the HOH room and trotted down the spiral staircase. He went into the kitchen and ate a few cookies someone had just baked and chatted with the people in there. They were talking about their favorite shows on Netflix. “You mean to tell me that you people actually watch shows on there? Haven’t you ever heard of ‘Netflix and chill’?” he joked.

            After a while, Shelby got up to go to the bathroom. Zach waited until he counted to one hundred in his mind, before getting up and ambling back in that direction. She was waiting for him.

            “So? Is he going to put us up again?” she asked in a whisper as soon as he walked in.

            “I don’t think so. I worked pretty hard to keep your team safe. It’s not easy, though. I can’t let him know I have your back.” Zach whispered back.

            “I hope you are not lying to me; setting me up to look like an idiot for trusting you,” she declared, hotly.

            “Shelby, I promise, I’m not lying. He has settled on two other teams. You know I need you to help me with my plan.”

            “I know. I’m just afraid you are going to dump me and align with somebody else,” she said with a whine that caused Zach to flinch a bit.

            “Look Shelby, I won’t do that. You are the only one I trust to help me and you are the only one who I have told anything to. Frankie has to get what he deserves, and it has to come from me; he has to know that I was behind it all from the beginning.”

            Shelby smiled and rocked back on her heels a bit. “I get it, ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’.”

            Zach grinned, “Yeah, something like that. I’m going to go back up there now so he doesn’t get suspicious. He is always monitoring me, following me around, watching to see what I am up too. I can’t wait until it is just you, me, and him in the final three! Then everybody will know the truth!”

            “I figured he was asleep. Everybody else that competed today is. It was a pretty rough one. Glad I didn’t have to.”

            “Yeah, me too. I would be a wreck. He is up there, listening to his Madonna CD.” Zach said, “So that’s why I can’t stay here very long. I just wanted to let you know, unless he is suspicious and pulls some crap at the last second, you should be safe. Don’t tell Alex!”

            “I won’t! I swear!” she held her hand up as if making an oath, “She is one of my best friends, but this is a game—and we are the ‘Dream Destroyers’!”

            “That’s right, and we will be here until the end! Frankie had the spy screen on when I left the room. Let’s not leave here together. Do you want to go out first?” Zach suggested.

            She did, and he again counted to one hundred before he left the bathroom. He went back to join the others in the kitchen. Chatted for a few minutes, drank a glass of water, and then told everyone goodnight.

            When he got back to the HOH room, Zach could tell by Frankie’s breathing that he was asleep. Since the room had two beds, he thought it would be better to sleep in the other bed to avoid bumping Frankie’s legs in his sleep.

            He took off his shoes and pulled off his shirt. He turned the light off and climbed into bed. He carefully pulled the covers up over Frankie’s shoulders so he wouldn’t get chilly during the night, and then lay down on his side of the bed. There wasn’t any reason to mess up the other bed when this bed was already messed up, he thought, and besides he knew he would never hurt Frankie.


	9. Chapter Nine

            Frankie nominated Team Jatalie and Team Queens just as he and Zach had discussed. Jace won the Veto comp and after talking it over with Team Zankie and hearing that their target was Team Jatalie, Jace and Austin decided not to use the Veto. On that Thursday’s live show, Jatalie was evicted. As the Houseguests were preparing to go to the backyard to compete in the next HOH competition, they were called back into the living room to receive a special message from Julie.

            “Houseguests,” Julie spoke to them from the large TV screen, “Earlier this evening, Big Brother announced that the teammates who play on even weeks would be competing in tonight’s HOH competition. And that is the truth…but not all of it. You see, tonight’s eviction marks the last team eviction. From now on there are no more teams; you all will be playing as individuals. Frankie and Zach, as the outgoing HOHs, you will not be playing. Everyone else needs to make their way into the backyard.”

            Several of the Houseguests looked stunned by the news. Zach reached for Frankie’s hand and squeezed it. Frankie looked over at Donny and they grinned at each other.

            The backyard opened and they all went outside to see the question booths were set up. Frankie and Zach sat on bleachers off to the side.

            The Houseguests were asked a series of “true” or “false” questions, and submitted their answers by turning a cube in their booth. The first two questions were easy and everyone got them right. After that, some of the Houseguests would join Frankie and Zach on the bleachers after every question. By question six, the only Houseguests still standing were Alex, Shelby, and Donny. Alex missed question seven, so Shelby and Donny had to go to a tie-breaking question.

            Frankie’s stomach was in knots. He saw Shelby and Zach exchange smiles at the end of the round. There was no doubt that Zach would be safe no matter who won. But Frankie knew Shelby would target him if she became the new HOH.

            The tie-breaking question was: “How many seconds did the ‘Slip and Slide’ comp last?” Donny and Shelby got out their chalkboards and went to work. Frankie looked at Zach and saw him lost in thought. Frankie knew that Zach was solving the problem in his head. Donny and Shelby were told to show their answers. Zach looked at the answers and leaned over and whispered, “Donny”, in Frankie’s ear.

            Almost immediately, Production announced that Donny was the winner. Shelby was discouraged as she left the booth. “I thought it lasted two hours and fifty-seven minutes!” she complained to Alex.

            “But you were really close! You’ll get it next time,” Zakiyah comforted her. Frankie congratulated Donny, and then noticed that after they had congratulated Donny, Zach and the women players went to commiserate with Shelby. Watching them, Frankie felt a chill run down his spine. He tried to dismiss it, but he couldn’t. He felt as if he were seeing a foreshadowing of the formation of an alliance. And it was one that didn’t include him.

            Austin had gone to the port-a-potty, and Devin was sitting on the bleachers. Around Donny were Jace, Paul, Victor, and Frankie. Frankie knew that there was a strong likelihood that they would join together during the rest of the game. He looked back at Zach, standing with Shelby and the women, and sighed. He had hoped that they could stick together until the end, but it didn’t look like that was in the cards. He promised himself that he was not going to be the one to go after Zach. He did that the last time, after being manipulated into it by Derrick; he vowed that history was not going to repeat itself.

\----------

            Houseguests were starting to filter out of Donny’s HOH room. Zach slipped away and came back a few minutes later wearing a jacket.

            “Are you cold?” Frankie asked in surprise because the room actually felt a bit stuffy to him.

            “Little bit,” Zach said with a grin.

            “It’s not cold in here. I hope you aren’t coming down with something. You might want to take an Advil before bed,” Frankie said, he got up and walked over to Donny and congratulated him again. He headed to the door, but stopped suddenly when Zach latched onto his arm.

            “Stick around for a few more minutes,” Zach whispered in his ear.

            Frankie gave him a quizzical look, and Zach answered it with a grin and a wink.

            Donny mentioned something about being tired, and the remaining Houseguests left the room. Frankie again stood up to go, but Zach pulled him back down to his seat. Finally, everyone was gone and Donny looked pointedly to Zach and Frankie still sitting on the couch. Zach laughed.

            “Donny, I think this moment calls for a piece of ‘happy cake’, don’t you?” Zach reached into the pockets of his jacket and pulled out three wrapped snack cakes.

            Donny beamed, “Why, yes! This is the perfect time!”

            “None for me! I’ve already had my cheat day this week!” Frankie protested.

            “Then borrow one from next week,” Zach insisted, “This is important.”

            Frankie shrugged and reached over and took the snack cake from Zach’s hand. Zach pulled off his jacket and sat back down. “I was roasting in that jacket, but it was the only way I could smuggle up the cakes.”

            Donny sat down in a chair near the couch, eating his cake with the guys. “I’m going to put up Devin and Austin, what do y’all think of that?” he asked quietly.

            Zach laughed, “Oh! Look at you, going after the big dogs!”

            “They’re both capable of winning the Veto and taking themselves down. Do you have a plan on who to put up then?” Frankie asked.

            Donny nodded, “Yep. If one of them comes down, I’m going to put Zakiyah up. She is such a sweetheart, who would vote her out over one of those two?”

            Frankie nodded. “Good plan, Donny.”

            “I’ve been dreaming of this since I found out Devin was going to be my partner. I think whoever leaves this week probably goes home, and next week is the start of jury. Do you think so too?”

            Frankie nodded, “Unless they are going to have an even numbered jury, which makes no sense.”

            “Good. I hope Devin leaves this week. I don’t mind going to the jury house, but I don’t want to run into him there,” Donny declared and the other men agreed. “This sure was nice of you Zach, to think of bring up cake. I appreciate it, a lot.”

            “Sure, no problem!” Zach said, standing up and gathering everyone’s wrappers. He dropped them into the trash can and walked back to get his jacket. “You ready, Frankie?”

            Frankie nodded and rose to his feet. He gave Donny a hug and told him goodnight, and then he and Zach left the HOH room together.

            Nobody was in the kitchen or living room when they came downstairs. It was an odd feeling because someone was always around. They walked into the bedroom and found everybody there. Since the team twist had ended, teams no longer had to sleep together. People were claiming the empty beds.

            Zach walked over and looked at the bed that he and Frankie had shared. The team name plaque had been removed from the foot of the bed. He scanned the room and realized that all the plaques were gone. Frankie’s hat was still hanging on the bedpost where he had hung it the first day, and Zach supposed that was why no one had claimed their bed yet.

            Zach sat down on the edge of the bed and Frankie sat down beside him. They sat quietly together, watching as some of the other Houseguests were loudly debating, sometimes actually squabbling over who got what bed. In other parts of the room, sheets were being stripped from the beds and changed for clean ones. Once someone threw a pillow across the room.

            “Frankie?”

            “Hm?”

            “Do you think…I mean, would you mind if… well, could we stay here together in our old bed?”

            Frankie turned his head, “Why? There are empty beds now.”

            Zach looked down at his hands, “I just…I don’t know, I just don’t like the idea of having an empty side of the bed. Somebody could just crawl in there in the middle of the night.” He looked up and his eyes fell on Victor.

            Frankie looked over and saw Shelby looking at them. “Yeah, I get your point.”

            “So…can we?” Zach asked.

            “Yeah, it’s fine. Just for a little while longer.” Frankie agreed.

            “Okay, cool. I’m going to the DR,” Zach said as he got up from the bed, “I need to ask them something.” He took off his hat and hung it on the bedpost on his side of the bed before he left the room.

            Frankie picked up his make-up bag and headed for the bathroom. He took a shower. When he got out he brushed his teeth and made sure all of his make-up was removed from his face. He put on a face mask and sat on one of the benches to wait out the time to remove it.

            Zach came in carrying his toothbrush. “Do those things work?”

            “Seem to, and they feel wonderful. You should try one,” Frankie answered.

            “Uh, no Rose. I’m not crazy about the idea of snail slime on my face.”

            Frankie chuckled, “Once you get past what it is, it’s great. Did you have a good doctor’s visit?”

            Zach was scrubbing away at his teeth, so he nodded. He spit out a mouthful of foam. “I asked for the Zankie plaque that was on our bed. They said I had to discuss it with you, since we are both Zankie. I like souvenirs, so do you mind if I have it?”

            Frankie gave a small wave of his hand, “Fine by me.” He peeled off the mask and went to the other sink to rinse away the residue. Zach continued to brush his teeth.

\----------

            That week, following nominations, the Houseguests were allowed to go outside. Big Brother had set up a small putting green and supplied them with two clubs and a bucket of balls. They suspected it had something to do with an upcoming competition, so they lined up to take turns practicing. Donny didn’t join in, preferring to spend some time alone in the HOH room. Devin and Austin were both angry at being nominated, so neither of them participated in putting practice.

            Austin was lifting weights and Devin was pacing the width of the yard at the furthest point. Frankie could feel the waves of tension coming off them. The air felt charged with an ominous power, almost as if a severe thunderstorm was approaching. Frankie checked the sky and found it to be cloud free. He scanned the group by the putting green to see if anyone else felt it too.

            Zach was busy helping the others to get the feel of the clubs and teaching them how to swing correctly. Even as stressed as he was feeling, Frankie couldn’t help but smile at the irony. Golf was Zach’s thing and by teaching others, he was hurting his own chance of winning the comp. But that was part of living in the Big Brother house—you helped others and hoped it didn’t bite you in the butt later.

            Frankie noticed that DaVonne and Alex were both watching the men at the far side of the yard with trepidation. He made his way over to DaVonne.

            “It doesn’t look good, does it?” Frankie asked.

            “No, it does not. It looks like some kind of alpha male pissing contest is about to go down any second.” She answered.

            Alex came up to them, keeping her eyes on Devin and Austin at all times. “Do you think we should tell somebody?”

            “I imagine Production is watching,” DaVonne said.

            Suddenly, Devin changed course in his pacing and began striding towards Austin. Austin threw down the weights he was using and jumped to his feet and started walking towards Devin. Their voices were raised, but it was hard to make out the words from where Frankie was standing.

            “Holy shit!” Zach exclaimed, and tossed down the golf club in his hand. He started to go in the direction of the battling giants, but Frankie grabbed his arm and stopped him.

            “Frankie, let go! We need to stop them before they kill each other!” Zach demanded, trying to pull his arm from Frankie’s grasp.

            “Not you. It’s not our job. If it gets physical, they will get kicked out. If you are down there, you could get kicked out too.” Frankie explained, and was relieved to feel Zach’s arm relax under his hand.

            Victor and Paul got up from their seats near the pool and came over and joined the group near the putting green. The group all huddled up together, watching silently as Devin and Austin circled each other. They had stopped screaming at each other and were now speaking in what sounded like growls.

            Suddenly, hidden doors in the walls opened up, and six security guards ran into the back yard. Production ordered the Houseguests to go to the HOH room for an indoor lockdown. On the way to the door, Frankie looked back and saw that each man was surrounded by three guards and were slowing being maneuvered back into neutral spaces.

            Hours later, Austin returned to the house. Donny took him aside and explained that Devin was the target and the reason that Austin was on the block next to him was that he was the only one in the house that was bigger than Devin. Donny told him that he felt Austin was the one who was most capable of beating Devin in the Veto comp. This information soothed Austin and he joined in with the rest of the Houseguests as they continued to practice on the putting green.

            It took much longer for Devin to return to the house. Most of the Houseguests were either already in bed, or in the process of going. He came in through the Diary Room door and made his way directly to his bed. He fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

            “Behold, the miracle of modern medications,” Zach mumbled to Frankie.

            Frankie lifted up his sleep mask and peeked at Devin. “I hope it is a long-lasting one, or else he will kill us all in our sleep.”

            Zach chuckled quietly, “Don’t worry, they wouldn’t let him back in here if there was any danger. Besides, you have me here. I’ll protect you.”

            “Yeah, right!” Frankie said, adjusting his sleep mask and flipping over onto his stomach, “He’s huge! He could grab you up by your ankles and use you to beat me with!”

            Zach laughed and reached over to pull the covers up over Frankie’s shoulders. He patted Frankie’s back, and left his hand there.

            Sometime later Frankie was awakened by the need to pee. He was lying on his back and Zach was curled up beside him, with his face buried in Frankie’s neck. Frankie realized that they were holding hands. They always used to sleep that way. With his free hand, Frankie pulled off his sleep mask and carefully unlaced his fingers from Zach’s. He tried to ease away from Zach, and Zach made a whining sound and grabbed for him.

            “Bathroom,” Frankie whispered, and Zach released him and rolled over to his other side.

            Frankie made his way through the dark room towards the dimmed light of the hallway. As he walked to the bathroom, he realized he could still smell Zach. Once upon a time, he had been in love with that smell, but he was over that now. He raised his hand to his face and breathed it in. Instead of heading directly to the stall, he stopped by the sink and scrubbed his hands and arms, using lots of soap. He dried off and smelled his hand again and was relieve to find the smell was gone. He made his way into the stall and emptied his bladder, and then went back and washed his hands again.

            He walked to the dining area and sat down in one of the chairs, facing the memory wall. Since the team twist was over, Big Brother had replaced the team pictures with individual ones. All they had really done was crop the pictures in half. They were a bit like puzzle pieces, and if you studied them for a bit, you could see how the pieces had once fit together.

            After a time, he realized that he had been staring at Zach’s picture. He wasn’t sure how long he had been, but he knew it was too long. He had been addicted to Zach and had gone through a long and painful withdrawal when the relationship ended. He scolded himself for putting himself in this predicament by coming back on the show.

            But it wasn’t too late. The team twist was over; he and Zach were obviously going to team up with people on opposite sides of the house. Their interactions could now be surface ones, and they could go back to how they had been when they first entered. Frankie sighed in relief and felt his muscles relax.

            He got up and went back to the bedroom. He found his and Zach’s bed in the dark. He felt around until his fingers found his sleep mask, and he picked it up. He walked back to the doorway, and started counting the beds on the other side of the room. The Calafiores had slept in the third bed down, and no one had claimed it yet. Once he found it, he pulled down the covers, kicked off his shoes, and climbed in it. He pulled the sleep mask over his eyes and curled up on his side to go to sleep.

            He didn’t notice it at first, and it didn’t come as a sudden rush, but as he was falling asleep, Frankie sensed that he could still smell Zach. He smelled his hands and his arms, and they smelled like the cheap, store-brand soap that the house supplied. Then he thought to smell his shirt. One whole side of it smelled of Zach from where he had lain, curled up against Frankie earlier. Frankie yanked the shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. “Stupid pheromones!” he thought, angrily. Eventually he was able to fall back asleep.

            He had a wonderful dream. He dreamed he was the little spoon and his back was pressed up against a broad, muscular chest. He knew, the way you do in dreams, that it was Zach’s chest. There was beautiful music playing. He sighed in contentment.

            “Are you going to dance?” Zach whispered.

            Frankie snuggled closer into Zach’s chest. “No, I don’t want to move, I just want to stay here with you.”

            At the sound of the hoarseness of his own morning voice, Frankie realized it was not a dream. He was awake and nuzzling back against Zach. He jerked away, and pulled up his sleep mask and quickly looked around the room. Some of the other Houseguests were dancing; some were still sleeping.

            “Why did you come over here to sleep?” Zach asked, “I woke up and you were gone. I couldn’t find you until the lights came on.”

            “I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to wake you up by tossing and turning,” Frankie answered.

            “I would have rather had woken up that way than to wake up with you gone,” Zach said softly, as he rolled onto his back.

            Frankie rolled onto his stomach, and buried his face in his pillow. He knew that in addition to finding Frankie gone from the bed this morning, Zach was also referring to the time that Frankie left the hotel room and walked out of Zach’s life for good.

            Zach rolled over on his side again. He pulled the covers up so they covered Frankie’s shoulders. Then he slid his hand under the pillow, stopping when he grazed Frankie’s hand with his finger tips. Frankie knew that he could pull away. He knew that he should pull away. Instead, he turned his hand a bit and interlaced his fingers with Zach’s. As he was dropping back off to sleep he realized that it was already too late to stop his feelings from coming back. He was doomed.

\----------

            Paul won the Veto and didn’t use it. During Thursday’s live eviction, Devin was voted out. He left without a problem, after spending the majority of the week sleeping.

            The HOH comp followed immediately after his eviction. As they had suspected, it was a golf theme comp. The set-up was nothing like how they had been practicing, but since they had all been on the show before, they had known it wouldn’t be.

            They had to use oversized clubs to hit a huge ball down a small slope, avoiding the bumpers that were scattered along the fairway to land in a numbered slot. The player with the highest score would be with winner. They had drawn for spots and Frankie’s number was near the start. Zach was the next to the last. He told Frankie he was glad because this would give him a chance to study the game a while.

            When Frankie’s turn came, he looked over to Zach and saw him make a motion telling Frankie to aim for the right. Frankie hadn’t come up with a strategy of his own, so he did as Zach suggested. He got a high score and got to take his place in the highest score circle. He held the spot for a number of players, but was ultimately knocked out by Victor whose ball had landed in the highest spot on the board.

            When it was Zach’s turn, he aimed for the right like he had suggested to Frankie. He hit the ball and gave it a little spin. His ball also landed in the highest spot on the board, and he joined Victor. The last one to try was Alex. She did well, but scored less than Victor and Zach.

            Zach and Victor had to play a tie-breaker game. Each was given three balls, and their final combined score after the third would determine the winner. Victor went first. Two of his balls earned high scores, but his third ball went wild and landed in a low scoring spot.

            After Zach’s second shot, he had already beaten Victor’s score, so he was very relaxed when he swung on his third ball. It quickly dropped into the highest scoring spot. Zach was declared the new HOH.

 


	10. Chapter Ten

            The Houseguests went upstairs to see Zach’s HOH room, and as Frankie was climbing the stairs, he suddenly remembered Zach’s boyfriend at home. What if he had signed a waiver after Zach got on the show? There could be pictures of him, or even them together, up there. The letter could even be from him. Frankie felt sick. He hadn’t actually forgotten that Zach had a boyfriend; he had just kind of pushed the knowledge aside for a bit. The real world was here, right now, inside the house. All the things outside seem kind of irrelevant.

            He braced himself for what he might see and hear, but it turned out to be a pleasant letter from his mother and some pictures of his family. Even so, Frankie knew that he wouldn’t be able to push Zach’s boyfriend out of his mind again. And he knew that he shouldn’t. Time had gone forward and Zach had a new life now. Frankie was going to have to accept that.

            While the rest of the Houseguests were looking at Zach’s pictures and rummaging through his basket, Frankie sat quietly examining his own hand. The rumors of his engagement that had preceded him into the house were not exactly as false as Frankie had led everyone to believe.

            There had been a proposal, and even a ‘blue box from Tiffany’s’, but Frankie had requested time to think about it. Meanwhile, his boyfriend had hinted to a reporter that they were engaged. That story spread like wildfire. Frankie had received so many cards, texts, tweets, and calls congratulating them, that after a while, he stopped correcting people. He had thought about it for a few weeks, and had decided that maybe he did want to get married. Then CBS had called him.

            The rest of the story was pretty much like he had told Cody. His boyfriend did not want Frankie to be Zach’s partner, and CBS had left it up to Frankie to choose who he wanted to team up with. Frankie had chosen to partner with Zach.

            Without that phone call, Frankie would be in NYC planning his wedding, and Zach would be in Florida planning his. And they probably would have never seen each other again. And Frankie wouldn’t be sitting in the HOH room staring at his bare ring finger, knowing that come finale night, he was probably going to meet the man that Zach was going to spend the rest of his life with.

            He excused himself and went into the HOH bathroom and threw up. As soon as he was finished he left the room and ran down to the main bathroom to brush his teeth. He found his acid reflux pills in his make-up bag and took two of them, and then crawled into his bed. It was late enough that some of the others were coming in to go to bed too.

            Sometime later he was awakened by Zach whispering against his neck, “Frankie! Come up to my room. Please? I’m lonely.”

            Frankie could smell that alcohol fumes on Zach’s breath. “You’re not lonely; you’re drunk. Go sleep it off.”

            “Please?” Zach begged in a ragged whisper.

            Frankie sighed, pushed up his sleep mask, and got out of bed. He slipped his feet into his flip-flops and followed Zach out the door. He decided it was easier to just go with Zach than argue with him. Plus, he wanted to stop Zach from whispering against his neck the way he had been doing. There was only so much temptation a person could take.

            Zach giggled and trotted all the way up to the HOH room. Frankie plodded along behind him. He was tired and depressed; the last thing he wanted to deal with was this goofy puppy.

            As soon as Zach got the HOH door unlocked, Frankie pushed by him, kicked off his shoes, and climbed into bed. He pulled his sleep mask down and snuggled down to go back to sleep.

            “Talk to me,” Zach pleaded. “This has been the worst HOH win ever! Donny is a Have-Not so we didn’t have ‘happy cake’, and you ran off right after I read my letter.”

            “Sorry. I was sick,” Frankie apologized.

            “Frankie? Why are you sick so much? Is something wrong?”

            Frankie sighed, rolled over, and pulled up his sleep mask so he could see Zach who was sitting criss-cross on the bed. “It’s just the stress of the game. I had it last time too.”

            Zach smiled, “Good, if it is just stress, then you can calm down now. I’ve got a plan.”

            Frankie gave him a ghost of a smile. “I’m glad that you do, especially since you are the HOH.”

            “I don’t think you are going to like it, but I think it is a brilliant plan,” Zach beamed.

            “Why wouldn’t I like it? You’re not putting me up, are you?” Frankie asked, sitting bolt upright, gaping at Zach.

            Zach laughed. “No! No way!”

            “Okay, well who then?”

            “I haven’t decided yet, but it is going to be a couple of the guys.”

            “Really?” Frankie frowned, “I had hoped we would work with them.”

            Zach leaned forward and spoke in a whisper, “No, that’s what we did last time and we didn’t make it to the end. This time we are going to keep the weaker players and get rid of the strong ones while we have the numbers.”

            “But…aren’t you worried that whoever doesn’t go home, will come after you?” Frankie asked, perplexed.

            “That’s the thing…they are going to come after me eventually anyway. I would rather it be when their numbers are low and the other side’s are high.”

            “Other side? You mean the women, don’t you?”

            “Let me ask you something, say we are down to the final four. Who do you think your best chance of beating is—a player like Victor, or a player like Zakiyah?”

            Frankie shrugged, “Yeah, I see your point.”

            “Not only that…the women want all the men out, they have this whole ‘Girl Power’ thing. If I help them, they will make sure I stay in the game. And I will make sure you stay in the game. Then, at the end, it’s us against them,” Zach finished with a grin.

            “Maybe not ‘us’. Are you forgetting that Shelby hates me; and DaVonne is not a fan—my fault, but still…they won’t keep me in.”

            “Then you work with the men. They will keep you safe, and I will keep you safe. I have a little leverage.” Zach stated, with a faint touch of pride in his voice.

            “If we are going to be in different alliances, we probably shouldn’t keep hanging out and sharing beds,” Frankie offered.

            “Fake alliances! Our true alliance is the two of us. Right?” Zach searched Frankie’s face for the answer.

            “Of course!” Frankie assured him. He could still see some doubt in Zach’s eyes, and he couldn’t blame him. He reached over and gripped Zach’s arm. “I swear. I’m not ever going to come after you.”

            Zach’s face relaxed a bit, but not all the way. “I’m not coming after you either. So,” he said, holding out his hand, “Zankie for final two?”

            Frankie placed his hand in Zach’s and they shook hands as Frankie said, “Zankie, final two.”

            “But I think you’re wrong about us hanging out together though. We went to a lot of trouble to convince people that we are friends. They are not going to believe we aren’t now; if we act differently, people will think we are up to something.” Zach reasoned.

            Frankie thought it over and nodded, “Yes, but I don’t think we should sleep in the same bed anymore. There are so many empty ones; there is no reason to share.”

            Zach sighed, “Alright. But starting tomorrow night, okay?”

            Frankie laughed, “Okay, starting tomorrow night. I’m sure some people saw me come up here and unless we stage a big fight, it would look weird for me to go back down there.”

            “No, no more fighting. Real or staged. I hate it, and besides…you always win!”

\----------

            Zach nominated Victor and Jace for eviction during the nomination ceremony. He hadn’t told Frankie the names of his noms before he announced them. He knew Frankie could act shocked, but he thought it would be better for it to be real.

            Alex won the Veto, which worried Frankie. He thought it was possible that Zach was overlooking how powerful Shelby and Alex actually were in the game. If his plan played out the way he laid it out to Frankie, Shelby and Alex could be a lot more difficult to beat than what Zach thought.

            During the Veto ceremony, Alex did not use the Veto. Thursday night’s live eviction found Victor walking out of the Big Brother house. Julie announced that he would be the first member of the jury.

            The HOH comp was questions where the winner of each round names the next two to answer. To almost everyone’s astonishment, Austin won.

            The next afternoon, the Houseguests were on an outside lockdown for hours. When the door was finally opened, the Houseguests found that some changes had taken place in the house. As soon as the team twist had ended, the two loveseats had been replaced by two chairs. Now two smaller couches were in the place of the two super couches. And one of the dining tables and its chairs had been removed. The two rooms that had changed made the house feel overlarge and empty.

            Frankie ducked into the bedroom and found that it had remained unchanged. He had thought maybe they would put the wall partitions back, and removed some of the beds, but they hadn’t. He was glad because there was still no reason to double up.

            As Austin’s HOH week began, Zach came back down to the main bedroom. Frankie kept the original bed that had been assigned to them and Zach had chosen one on the opposite wall, but one more bed over to the right. The first thing Frankie saw in the morning was Zach. It wasn’t the greatest set-up, but at least it was better than them reaching for each other’s hands in their sleep as they had been doing.

            Big Brother announced that it was time for the midway party. The feeds were shut down for three hours, and people could relax knowing they weren’t being watched. Big Brother played music and Frankie danced almost every dance during the early part of the party. In addition to the regular beer and wine that Big Brother often supplied, there was also Champagne. The bottles supplied were not from a well-known vineyard, nor were they a good vintage, but after being in the house without drinking any of the alcohol, Frankie treated himself with a few glasses. When the cake arrived, Frankie, Zach, and Donny ate theirs together, because it was a ‘happy cake’, Donny’s favorite kind.

            Frankie and Donny were in the middle of a conversation when Zakiyah approached and asked Donny if he would dance with her. The song was a slow, romantic ballad. Donny was reluctant to dance, but he had a soft spot for Zakiyah. He had often spoken about how pretty and sweet she was, so he obliged her. As soon as they moved away from the couch, Zach walked over.

            “Dance with me,” Zach said. His voice made it sound like a cross between a request and a demand.

            “Are you serious?!!” Frankie answered, stunned at the suggestion.

            “Yeah, come on…you’ve danced with almost everybody in the house tonight except for me. And we are the only ones without a partner.”

            Frankie looked around and saw that was true. He shrugged and stood up. Zach took his hand and led him to an empty spot on the make-shift dance floor. Zach took the lead and pulled Frankie close. Frankie was more than a bit surprised by how close.

            Frankie had danced with some of the best dancers in the world during his career. Zach’s skills as a dancer were not amazing, but still…Frankie found dancing with him to be surprisingly nice. Actually, it was extremely pleasant, if Frankie were to be honest with himself.

            At one point, Zach reached up and caressed the back of Frankie’s head. Frankie instinctively found himself nuzzling his face into Zach’s neck. He stopped himself from kissing Zach’s neck at the last second and with every ounce of restraint he could summon.

            When the song ended, Frankie returned to his place on the couch. Donny also returned and they resumed their conversation. Frankie’s mind was only half on what Donny was saying. The other half was focused on Zach, against Frankie’s will. He didn’t want to think of Zach; he didn’t want to be tuned into every move Zach made, but he was. After the dance, Zach had gone to talk to Shelby. He didn’t leave her side for the rest of the evening, even after the feeds had come back on.

            At one point, Frankie’s gaze met Shelby’s. She gave him a smirk and leaned forward and whispered something in Zach’s ear. Zach threw his head back and laughed. Frankie felt his stomach drop. He knew that the two of them had planned that dance. He wasn’t sure the reason for it, but he felt like he was the butt of the joke. He stiffened his spine and put a smile on his face. Whatever they were doing, he wasn’t going to let it affect him.

\----------

            Austin nominated Donny and Frankie. At the ceremony the shock was palpable. Not so much because he had nominated Donny because Donny had nominated him during his HOH. But Austin and Frankie often spent time together; along with Paul and Jace. The four of them hadn’t officially formed an alliance, but the intention seemed obvious.

            Frankie won the Veto and took himself off the block. Austin replaced him with Zach.

            Later, while the three of them were alone in the bedroom, Donny whispered, “I don’t think it was exactly personal. I think he wanted to go after those of us that were on 16.”

            “I’ve always heard that he was supposed to be on our season but for some reason he couldn’t, so they scheduled him for 17 and brought Hayden on in his place,” Zach said.

            “Yeah, I heard that too. I’m glad we had Hayden. Although, witnessing how Austin and Devin interacted, I imagine they would have gotten each other out early in the game,” Frankie said.

            “If I am the one who gets sent to jury,” Donny said. “I hope one of the two of you make it to the end. If you do, I will vote for you. Aside from the fact that you are both my friends, I would love for someone from 16 to get it!”

            “Who would you vote for if Frankie and I both made it to the end?” Zach asked with a grin.

            “Well…” Donny paused, scratching his beard, “I guess I would draw Skittles out of a hat to decide.”

            Zach threw back his head and roared with laughter. Frankie grinned but looked a bit embarrassed.

            “Save the candy, when Frankie and I are in the finale, just vote alphabetically,” Zach suggested.

            “Wait a minute…F comes before Z, and G comes before R, so no matter which name he chooses, I win!” Frankie said with a laugh.

            “I guess I wasn’t thinking right when I suggested that,” Zach said, smiling at Frankie.

            In the middle of their conversation, Donny was called into the DR. Zach watched him walk out of the room and then turned back to Frankie.

            “It’s going to be hard on you when it comes time to vote,” he said.

            Frankie shrugged. “Not really. It’s not personal, it’s just a game.”

            Zach laughed, “So you’re really not going to give me even a hint?”

            “Hint for what? You know I am going to keep you. We shook hands on it, remember? Does ‘Zankie for final two’ ring any bells?”

            “Yeah, but it’s Donny and the two of you seem to be pretty close,” argued Zach.

            “Doesn’t matter who it is. I can read the writing on the wall.”

            “Meaning?” Zach asked with his head cocked.

            “Meaning…you will get the four women’s votes, Donny will get Paul’s and Jace’s. He couldn’t win even if he had mine. If I go against the house, I’m the next target. If I don’t vote with Paul and Jace, I become their target. I’m screwed no matter what I do, so I will vote to keep you because I promised, and because I am trying to stay in the house. Somehow I have ended up being this year’s Caleb; just being kept around for a number.”

            “What?!!! No you’re not!” Zach grabbed Frankie’s arm and looked into his eyes, “I’ve told you, it’s you and me at the end. I’m going to do whatever I have to do to make that happen. But in no way are you like Caleb!”

            Frankie eased his arm out of Zach’s grasp. “I get it, it’s Big Brother, but this team twist thing really screwed my game up. It’s hard to make alliances when one teammate is awful.”

            Zach leaned back, staring open-mouthed at Frankie, “Do you mean me?”

            In spite of himself, Frankie laughed. “No, I don’t mean you, you lunatic! I mean Devin and Austin, people like that! We couldn’t team up with people like Jace or Donny early in the game because of their teammates, and we had no idea how long the team twist was going to last. That’s what I meant! You are actually playing a smart game; you did what the women wanted you to do during your HOH, and now they will repay you by keeping you in the game.”

            Zach’s face turned red and he looked down at the bedspread. He looked back up at Frankie and grinned. “Do you really think I am playing a smart game?”

            “Thursday night the vote will be 5-2 for Donny to go to jury. That proves it right there,” Frankie declared.

\----------

            On Thursday’s show, Julie announce that it was time for another double eviction, but first they had to vote for either Donny or Zach to join Victor in the jury house. The vote was 5-2, just as Frankie had predicted.

            Zach and Frankie walked with Donny to the door. Donny gave them both a quick hug, and said quietly, “I really appreciate the times we ate ‘happy cake’ together. Will you promise me that the next time the two of you have it, you will invite me?”

            Frankie and Zach promised, and Donny smiled. “I’m going to hold you to that!” he said as he walked out the door.

            “I had no idea that Donny had such a thing for cake,” Zach said. “It’s all he ever seemed to talk about in here.”

            “I always thought he was a Pop-Tart guy,” Frankie said with a shrug.

\----------

            The HOH comp was a bit different than others they had done. Each Houseguest, with the exception of Austin, was given five chips. They were to go behind a curtain and drop their chips into the container of the two people they did not want to win HOH. Frankie realized immediately that this was a variation of how the nomination process was in other countries. When it was his turn, he dropped three of the chips into Shelby’s container, and two into Alex’s.

            After everyone had deposited their chips, Julie had Austin to pull back the curtain to show the containers to the Houseguests. All of the containers had chips in them, except for Zach and Zakiyah. Julie announced there would be a tie breaker. All the Houseguests, except for Austin, Zach, and Zakiyah would be give one chip. They were to step behind the curtain and vote for the one they did not want to win.

            This time when the curtain was drawn back, a few chips were in Zach’s container, and the rest were in Zakiyah’s. Julie announced that Zach was the new HOH.

            Immediately he had to nominate, so he selected Jace and Paul. The live show went to a commercial break, so Zach called Jace and Paul into the tearoom for a quick talk.

            “I’m not after either one of you. I want to backdoor Austin. With the three of us playing, surely one of us will win the Veto. If you get Houseguest’s choice, pick Frankie to play. He’ll use it.”

            Jace and Paul really didn’t have much choice but to agree with the plan. Production had them to come out of the tearoom and draw names for the Veto. Zach drew Alex’s name, Paul drew DaVonne’s, and Jace drew Shelby’s. Not exactly the Houseguests that they had hoped for but Zach assured them it would be okay.

            The POV comp was the obstacle course/ducks in the balls comp that they used pretty much every year for the double eviction. For the first part of the game, Jace was in the lead, finding two of his ducks before anyone else had found one. Then he scrambled around frantically trying to find his third.

            Paul located his three first and hit the buzzer. Zach hung the Veto around his neck. They all went back inside the house, and during the POV ceremony, Paul told Julie that he was going to use the Veto on himself. Zach was told to name a replacement, and he chose Austin.

            The Houseguests were sent to the DR to cast their votes, and Austin was voted out unanimously. He walked out without saying goodbye to anyone.

 


	11. Chapter Eleven

            The live show ended shortly after Austin left and then Big Brother gave Zach his HOH basket. He got a bunch of snacks, a few pictures, and a letter from his brother. He did not get the key to the room or a CD because he would be replaced shortly by the next HOH. The Have-Nots had ended for the season, so Zach shared his snacks with everyone.

            The eight remaining Houseguests hung around the living room waiting to be called to the backyard for the HOH competition. They could hear the sounds of construction outside, but they did not get any notifications from Production. They were still in their clothes that they had worn during the live show since they had not been told to change into anything specific for the competition.

            They waited for hours. Eventually people began to head off to bed, making jokes that they bet as soon as they fell asleep, Production would wake them up and make them go outside. Many were speculating it was a face-morph competition because it was usually played in the dark.

            Since Zach had not received a key to the HOH room, he went to sleep in his usual bed. That night no one slept soundly, as they were all expecting to be woken up.

            The next morning they all came awake with the lights on and music playing, just like a typical morning. After the music ended, Frankie walked to the outside door and listened.

            “Hear anything?” Zach asked, coming up behind him at the door.

            “No. It’s quiet. I bet we’ll be called out soon.”

            “I have a feeling it’s going to be an endurance and I can’t play,” Zach complained.

            Frankie nodded. “Yeah, I bet it is. It seemed to take longer to build than most do. Some of that time was probably testing everything.”

            Zach started off towards the kitchen, “If it is endurance you need to make sure you eat well this morning.”

            Frankie laughed, “Depends on the comp. If they are going to be spinning us around for hours, it might be better to not eat much.”

            “Well, we don’t know what it is, so eat! You have to win to keep us both safe,” Zach said with a laugh.

            “You have your alliance to keep you safe!” Frankie said with a smirk, “You don’t need me. By the way, you never told me…what’s your alliance name?”

            Zach’s face turned brilliant red and he looked away. “You know the rules of alliances. You never tell things like that to the other side.”

            “Oh. Okay. I didn’t know that you considered me one of the ‘other side’. I thought we had a final two and you were just pretending to be with them.”

            Zach laughed at the frown on Frankie’s face and pulled him into a tight hug. He whispered in Frankie’s ear, “They call us ‘The Attackers’, playing on ‘Zach Attack’. I’m not really with them, and you are not the ‘other side’. It’s you and me, I swear it. You and me!”

            Frankie patted Zach’s back, nodded, and then stepped out of Zach’s embrace. “I do think I am going to take your advice and eat well.” He began to collect the items he needed. “Want me to fix some for you too.”

            Zach laughed, “Always! Your cooking beats mine every time!”

\----------

            After breakfast Frankie took a shower and spent some time fixing his hair before starting to work on his face. He chose to use all waterproof make-up, just in case it was an endurance comp. It seemed like almost every endurance comp Production dumped something on them…water, foam, always something wet. He dressed in clothes that he thought would be comfortable for long wearing.

            All throughout the morning hours, the Houseguests waited.

            Shortly after lunch, Production made an announcement that participants in the HOH should be wearing active wear. They all had anticipated that it was going to be endurance so they all were already dressed in active wear. They waited for the next announcement. It didn’t come for almost an hour.

            Finally the backdoor opened and they were instructed to go outside. At the last second before leaving the house, Zach saw one of Frankie’s hooded jackets hanging on the back of a chair at the kitchen counter. He grabbed it and then looked at the clock on the microwave. It was 1:34.

            Frankie was still at the door with the others and Zach stepped in front of him, blocking him from the rest of the Houseguests. He secretly passed the jacket to Frankie, who took it with a confused look on his face. Zach stepped to the side and allowed Frankie to walk out the door, with Zach coming out of the house last.

            They had to wait behind a partition until they received the signal, then as a group they made their way into the backyard to view the comp. It was ‘The Wall’.

            Zach was furious. This was the comp that they had simultaneously hoped for and dreaded on season 16, but it had never arrived. Now, here it was, and he, as outgoing HOH, was not allowed to play.

            He angrily sat down on a bench positioned on the sidelines. Production explained the rules and ran a demonstration for the participants. And even though it was a sunny afternoon, in California, in the heart of summer, Frankie pulled on that hooded jacket. He zipped it to the top and pulled the hood up. He stepped up to his shelf, and grabbed the handles. His eyes met Zach’s and he gave Zach a nod.

            Zach knew that Frankie was thanking him for bringing out the jacket, and that he was also assuring Zach that he was going to do his best to win the comp. Zach had no doubts in Frankie’s abilities.

            The competition began. The moat under them was filled with colored water to make it look like tea. There were chunks of soft foam cut-outs floating in the ‘tea’ that resembled broken cookie pieces. Every once in a while, the Houseguests on the wall were sprayed with water, that Frankie later told Zach felt as if it had been shipped in from the Arctic Circle. Sometimes tiny cubes of fake sugar were pelted at the Houseguests, and occasionally sticky white syrup, representing cream, was dumped over their heads. There were fake lemon wedges that were mounted a few feet away from each Houseguest’s chest. Every few minutes it would swing over and hit them.

            At first the Houseguests on the wall did a lot of talking and complaining, but as the cold from the water began to seep through their clothes and as the wall angled down towards the moat, conversation stopped. They were all busy trying to use all their energy staying on the wall. The first hour passed with no one falling off. The second hour found Paul, Jace, DaVonne, and Zakiyah off. Only Shelby, Frankie, and Alex survived going into the third hour.

            Zach distributed towels and blankets for the fallen Houseguests, and they found places in the sun to sit and watch the comp.

            Midway through hour three, Production opened up the house and allowed the Houseguests who had been eliminated to go in and shower. The competition continued.

            Shortly before the fourth hour, the wall had been leaning back for a while but was coming forward again. One of Shelby’s feet slipped off her peg. As she scrambled to pull herself back on, she overcorrected which caused both feet to lose the peg, and she was dangling in mid-air by her hands still holding onto the handles. Production gave her a few seconds to recover, but she couldn’t and they called time on her. She dropped into the moat and came up cussing. She snatched the towel from Zach’s outstretched hand and she stormed off into the house.

            Alex and Frankie were the last ones left. Houseguests would pop out every once in a while and watch. Zach stayed on the bench where he had been since the beginning.

            At one point, when it was just the three of them, Zach called over to them, “Make some deals!”

            “No, I’m good. Not even tired yet. How about you, Alex?” Frankie asked.

            “No, I’m fine.” She answered. She had clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering.

            Time went on.

            Much later, after a tremendous burst of ice cold water, Alex looked over at Frankie, “Frankie, if I drop, are we good?”

            Frankie nodded. She prepared to let go when suddenly, Frankie slipped off his peg and fell into the moat.

            He came up sputtering, shock written all over his face. “I don’t know how that happened,” he said as Zach hurriedly pulled him out of the moat and wrapped him in towels.

            Alex was declared the winner, and the wall righted itself and she got off her peg and walked over to Frankie and Zach. Zach handed her a towel. “Frankie, you’re safe,” she promised, and then she hurried into the house.

            Frankie was staring at his hands which had swollen and were beginning to turn blue. Zach looked down and saw them and captured them in his own hands.

            “I can’t feel them,” Frankie stated.

            “That’s probably why you fell. Come on, let’s get you into a hot shower,” Zach said, and helped Frankie into the house.

\----------

            While Frankie and Alex were in the showers, Zach made them a pot of hot tea. He noticed that the clock on the microwave said 7:26. He was impressed when he realized that the comp had lasted almost six hours. From the kitchen he heard the blow dryer stop. He walked to the bathroom and saw Alex at the mirror, brushing her hair. Frankie was sitting on the bench, dressed only in sweat pants and holding his shirt.

            “I made some hot tea for you guys,” Zach said as he entered the room.

            Alex laughed. “After that comp, the last thing I should be wanting is tea, but it actually sounds kind of nice. Thanks, Zach!” She turned in the mirror and checked that her hair was lying right in the back, and finding that it was, she left to go get some tea.

            Zach sat down next to Frankie, who was studying the shirt in his hands. Zach reached over and felt Frankie’s fingers and found that they were still cold, in spite of the hot shower he had just taken.

            “I can’t feel them yet,” Frankie said.

            Zach eased the shirt out of Frankie’s weak grasp and said, “Here, let me help you.”

            Frankie said, “No, that’s okay,” as he frantically looked around the room.

            Zach leaned in and whispered, “It’s just you and me, Frankie. Let me help you.”

            Frankie sighed and then nodded. Zach gently put Frankie’s shirt on him and then sat down on the floor and picked up one of Frankie’s cold feet.

            “Stop! What are you doing?” Frankie asked angrily as he tried to pull his foot out of Zach’s hands.

            “I’m checking to see if your skin has split anywhere so we can treat it. I suggest you do the same with your fingers. You are the one who told me how important it is to treat sores right away on your fingers and toes.”

            Frankie grumbled, but he did look over his fingers while Zach examined his toes. “I hate this! I was just seconds away from winning. If it wasn’t for my fucking hands,” Frankie said, with clenched teeth and a shake of his head.

            “Stop that! You can’t help it if you have circulation problems! Luckily I don’t see any cuts, do you?”

            Frankie shook his head ‘no’.

            “You need to take one of your pills,” Zach said. He picked up one of the socks that Frankie had nearby and began to pull it on Frankie’s foot.

            “I think I can do that myself!” Frankie said with an edge in his voice.

            “Maybe, maybe not. Doesn’t matter now though. I already did it.” Zach said as he put the other sock on Frankie. “That’s what friends are for—to help you, even if you don’t ask for it; even when you don’t want it.”

            Frankie heaved a deep sigh and then nodded as he stood up, “Sorry, you’re right. Thank you for your help.”

            Zach got up from the floor where he had been sitting and pulled Frankie in for a quick hug. “Stop beating yourself up for falling. You did amazing out there. You lasted a lot longer than I would have.” He whispered in Frankie’s ear.

            Frankie gave Zach a squeeze and then stepped away. “I’m going to go ask for one of my pills, and then I’m going to get a cup of that tea.”

            While Frankie was in the DR, Zach dug through the kitchen trash and located a discarded orange juice bottle. He shook the ants off of it, grabbed a plastic drinking glass from the cabinet, and headed for the bathroom. Once there, he picked up each of the shampoo bottles in the shower until he found one that was nearly empty. He poured the remaining contents into the plastic glass and put it where the bottle had been. He took the empty orange juice bottle, and the empty shampoo bottle, to the sink. He washed them thoroughly and then filled them with hot water.

            He was walking to the bedroom as Frankie exited the DR.

            “Did you take one of your pills?” Zach asked.

            “Yeah. It should kick in soon. What have you got in your hands?” Frankie asked, as he saw Zach trying to hide the bottles.

            “You’ll see,” Zach said with a grin. “Go lay down in your bed.”

            Frankie laughed, “I planned on it. They said the comp lasted for almost six hours! I’m exhausted.”

            When they reached the bedroom, they found that Shelby and Alex were already in there lying down.

            Frankie walked to his bed, and Zach stopped by his own bed and grabbed a pillow before walking over to Frankie’s. He carefully placed his pillow next to Frankie’s feet and laid the large orange juice bottle on it. The bottle rested against the back of Frankie’s toes.

            “Oh, that’s wonderful!” Frankie said with a sigh. “I can feel the warmth!”

            “Good!” Zach said, smiling, “I hoped it would help. Here,” he said, laying the shampoo bottle on Frankie’s upper stomach. “Rest your hands on this.”

            Frankie did, and then looked up at Zach with a smile. “This feels like heaven!”

            Zach grinned, “I’m going to go get you that tea now!”

            Production called for Zach as he was heading back to the bedroom with Frankie’s tea. “I’ll be there in a minute, Big Brother!” he yelled.

            “Can you hold this, or do you need help,” he asked Frankie as he handed him the cup of tea.

            “No, I can do it. The feeling is starting to come back a bit now. Thanks though!” Frankie said as he took a sip from the cup.

            Zach hurried to the DR. When he returned a few minutes later, he went into the kitchen and found Paul cooking dinner for everyone. “Where is Zakiyah?” he asked.

            “Um…I’m not sure. I think she might be in the bedroom,” he answered without taking his eyes off the large pot of hot oil that he was using to deep fry the French fries.

            Zach thanked him and went in search of Zakiyah. He found her sitting on the bed next to Frankie’s, chatting with him. “Zakiyah,” he said in a formal tone, “I dumped your shampoo out of your bottle. I am sorry. Big Brother will be replacing it later tonight. The cost of it will be deducted from my stipend,” he paused and looked up to the nearest camera, “Okay, was that good enough, Big Brother?” The camera made an up and down motion, and the Houseguests in the bedroom all laughed.

            “What’s that all about? Why did you dump out my shampoo?” Zakiyah questioned, with a faint frown on her brow.

            “I needed a bottle for Frankie’s hands,” he said, pointing to it lying on Frankie’s chest. “Your bottle had the least amount of shampoo in it. I poured the shampoo into a plastic glass and it is on the shelf where your bottle was.”

            “So I still have the shampoo? Why would you have to replace it then?” she asked.

            “Apparently I ‘stole’ your bottle. Houseguests are not allowed to ‘steal’ other Houseguests’ property,” Zach explained.

            “I’m surprised they didn’t kick you out and have you arrested!” Zakiyah said angrily. She raised her voice, “Big Brother, I would have given Zach the shampoo bottle myself if I knew he needed it. There is no reason for him to have to buy me new shampoo!”

            Big Brother did not answer.

            “It’s okay, Zakiyah. I don’t care. But let me ask you something: Do you really spend $26.00 for shampoo?” Zach asked, doubtfully.

            Zakiyah laughed, “Yes, I’m sorry Zach, but I do!”

            Zach laughed and looked into the nearest camera, “Future Big Brother players: If you ever need a shampoo bottle, dump out the cheap crap that Big Brother gives us, not the expensive stuff that a fellow Houseguest brings!”

            “What if we pour the water out and give Zakiyah back her bottle. It would be square then and nobody would owe anything,” Frankie offered.

            “NO!” Zakiyah and Zach exclaimed in unison.

            “You need that warmth on your hands, Frankie. I don’t care about a measly $26.00 deduction from my stipend. I’m just having fun with it,” Zach scolded.

            “Keep the bottle, Frankie,” Zakiyah ordered. “I would have given it to you freely if I had known.”

            “And don’t you dare throw it away after you are done with it. Save it in case we have another comp like that. I don’t want to have to ‘steal’ any more bottles!” Zach said with a laugh. “That one has been bought and paid for already. Consider it a gift from me to you.”

\----------

            “I always thought that was fake about Frankie’s hands until I saw them today,” Shelby said later that night. She and Zach were alone in the storage room.

            “It is a circulatory disease,” Zach said, “It’s worse than what he lets on.”

            “I am surprised that they let him come on ‘Big Brother’ then,” she said with a sniff. “Anyway, I thought you would be happy to hear that Alex isn’t going to nominate him. She says it is because he promised her safety first before he fell. I think it is because she feels sorry for him. Either way, he is safe.”

            “Good! Only a few more evictions left before we make it to the final three!” Zach said with a grin.

            “So, is the ‘Dream Destroyers’ still a thing?” She asked, studying his face closely.

            “Of course! You, me, and Frankie at the final three—same as we have planned all along. What would make you question it?”

            “Oh, I don’t know. I just think it’s funny how you tell me you have all these plans about Frankie, but then I see you practically breast-feeding him today because of his hands. You’re playing one of us…and it better not be me!”

            Zach reached out and captured her shoulders in his hands, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Chill! I haven’t changed my mind! As a human I felt like I had to help Frankie today. He and I used to be close so I know how bad his disease is. I’m the only one here who does. He would never ask anyone for help, he’s too proud, so I volunteered. Honestly, you wouldn’t expect me to not help him and then him end up losing fingers or toes, would you? I know I have said that I want Frankie to get what he deserves, but I never said I wanted him maimed for life!”

            Shelby sighed, “I guess not. I probably would have helped someone if they needed it too.”

            “Good, and we’re good, right?” Zach asked.

            “Well, I don’t have a backup plan, so yeah, we’re good,” she answered with a shrug.

            “Believe me, the end of the game will be worth everything we have to go through to get there,” Zach promised.

\----------

            When Alex made her nominations, she kept her word and did not nominate Frankie. She nominated Paul and Zach. After the nomination ceremony was over, Frankie pulled Zach aside for a private talk.

            “Did you know she was going to nominate you?” Frankie asked in a hushed tone.

            “Yeah. She wants to backdoor Jace,” Zach confided.

            “No. She wants to backdoor me.”

            “No! No. She told me her plan, and I agreed to help her,” Zach insisted.

            “Paul is a stronger player than Jace, if they were going to backdoor one of them, I think it would be Paul. I have a feeling that your ‘Attackers’ call themselves another name when you are not around. If you get Houseguest’s Choice for the POV, I hope you pick me so at least I have a fighting chance.”

            “I will. Of course I will, but you’re wrong Frankie. Alex promised you would be safe.”

\----------

            When it came time to draw names for the POV, Alex drew first. She pulled Frankie’s chip. For a split second, her face fell before she covered it with a smile. She wasn’t fast enough though because Frankie saw that millisecond of disappointment on her face. Zach pulled DaVonne’s name and Paul drew Jace’s.

            The Houseguests were on an inside lockdown, and they could hear the construction sounds outside. Frankie wandered into the bedroom and took his make-up bag to his bed. He got out six items and laid them on the bed in front of him. He looked at them for a few moments and then gathered them up and put them back in the bag. There were no scenarios to run. It was obvious. Whoever won the Veto was going to use it. And, unless it was Frankie who won it, he was going to be the replacement nom. He ran the votes in his head and knew that if he were on that block Thursday night, he would be evicted.

            The worse part about the whole thing was that Zach still did not believe him. He believed it when his ‘Attackers’ told him that the target was Jace. For the first time in the season, Frankie felt alone. It was as if he had somehow got transported back in time to BB16 when the other Houseguests had all turned against him and he had to play the Battle-of-the-Block alone.

            He got up and walked to his dresser. He decided he wasn’t going to sit around and feel sorry for himself, so he gathered up what he needed and headed to the bathroom. He was going to take a hot shower and prepare himself to win the comp. He saved himself before, and he knew he could do it again.

\----------

            The Veto competition was ‘OTEV in Wonderland’. The riddles were based on the teams who had left the game. After they had been given their first clue, they slid down the waterfall and dashed through the Wonderland scene to locate the team cards. Frankie found quite a few of the ones he didn’t need but knew he would later. Frankie had always been blessed with an amazing memory, so he knew that later in the comp he would be able to recall where those cards were.

            Both Paul and Zach made it back up the top of the waterfall before Frankie. Jace and Alex managed to get back in time to claim a kneeling stump. DaVonne was the last to return. When the answers were revealed and the five on the stumps had all answered correctly, DaVonne was eliminated.

            Round by round followed with Jace, Alex, and Zach being eliminated. The last round found Paul and Frankie the only two left. Frankie knew that whoever didn’t win this round would be the person leaving the house on Thursday. He met Paul’s eyes and knew that Paul knew it too.

            When OTEV gave them the riddle, Frankie instantly remembered the answer was located on the first card he had seen in the competition. He slid down the waterfall, ran to the card, grabbed it up, and made his way back to the top. He was situated on the stump before Paul had even located the card he was looking for. Paul took his time coming back up. Frankie showed OTEV the card in his hand, and was declared the winner.

\----------

            Before the Veto ceremony, Frankie thought about how hard he had been trying to convince Zach that he couldn’t trust people in the game. Frankie realized he might need to take that advice for himself. For all Frankie knew, Zach may have been the brains behind the plan to get Frankie out. Zach certainly didn’t even acknowledge there was a plan so he either didn’t know, or he didn’t want Frankie to know his role in it. Frankie thought about all the times that he had seen Zach and Shelby huddled together in private conversations, exchanging looks, and even laughing together. If Shelby had been the HOH Frankie would have been certain they had planned Frankie’s eviction together. However, it was Alex’s HOH. Zach and Alex had never seemed to be extremely close. Frankie knew they worked together; Zach had not kept that a secret from him. And he also knew, from experience, sometimes alliance members didn’t know everything that really went on in the alliance.

            During the Veto meeting, Frankie listened to Paul and Zach’s pleas for him to use the Veto on them. He was pretty certain that whether he used the Veto on Zach or not, Zach would be safe. But he also knew that sometimes the pawn went home in the game. And he also knew how awful it felt to sit in that seat, hoping someone would save you. He hung the Veto around Zach’s neck and told Alex that he was Vetoing one of her noms and she had to select another one.

            Jace was named to take Zach’s place on the block. After the ceremony, Zach gave Frankie a hug, and whispered, “Thanks for using your Veto on me! For a second there, I was a little afraid you weren’t going to.”

            “I wouldn’t put you in jeopardy. I am praying that is mutual.”

            “Of course, Frankie! I told you, you were never in danger.” Zach said, clutching Frankie tighter.

            “We’ll see,” Frankie said. “If they tell you to vote for Paul instead of Jace, I hope you will believe me then.”

            “And if they don’t?”

            “Then I will admit I was wrong to feel threatened.” Frankie said, he patted Zach’s back a few times and then stepped away from him.

\----------

            Eviction days were always busy days for Frankie. He got himself ready as early in the day as possible so he would have time to help the others. They all sought his advice. For some of the Houseguests it was a simple as what shoes they should wear with what outfit, but for some of them they wanted his help on every facet of their appearance. It was fun for Frankie, and he honestly thought that this cast showed up on the couches looking more fabulous than any other cast had.

            All day Zach had been popping up near him, but whenever Frankie looked his way, Zach left the area. Shortly before the show was about to start, Frankie took his place on the couch to wait. No one else had taken their places yet.

            Zach sat down quietly next to him. It wasn’t the seat that he had been assigned, so Frankie immediately knew he wanted to talk. He had suspected as much all day. He even suspected he knew what Zach was going to say. But he waited in silence.

            Zach sat with his head down examining his hands. After what seemed like an eternity he broke the silence, “Frankie…” he began, but then paused.

            “It’s Paul, right?” Frankie supplied.

            Zach nodded, and then raised his head to look Frankie in the eye. “I didn’t know it, I swear! They lied to me. I should have listened to you. I’m so sorry!”

            Frankie nodded, “I believe you didn’t know. I really felt like I was being set up and that if I didn’t win the Veto, I would be leaving tonight. I’m glad to know that you weren’t a part of the plan. From now on until the end, I know I am not safe. But you have to realize something…you are no longer safe either. Your alliance lied to you and they also put you on the block. The house can flip with no warning and it could have been you who left.”

            Zach’s eyes registered the shock as he listened to Frankie. “If you had left because I listened to them instead of to you, I would have self-evicted—I swear it!”

            “No! I don’t ever want you to do that! If I leave before you, then stay and fight harder. Remember why you came here and fight with everything you have inside to make it to the end. But you need to keep in mind, this is ‘Big Brother’ and people will lie to you to further themselves in the game. Even if it is someone that you wouldn’t lie to, it doesn’t mean they feel the same. And, you didn’t ask my advice but I will give it to you anyway, don’t let them know that you know what they did. If you do, they will be that much more determined to get you out, and you will be in the same boat as me.”

            The other Houseguests began to come into the living room and take their seats. Zach gave Frankie a nod to let him know he heard him and then went to sit in his assigned seat.

            Less than an hour later, Paul was gone and the Houseguests were in booths set up in the backyard. The HOH comp was “Who Said It?” and for each question there were two Houseguests to choose from.

            The final round it was down to Frankie and Jace. Frankie hadn’t known all of the quotes, but had some lucky guesses. The final quote was something that Frankie had not heard any Houseguest say and the choices were Victor and Austin. Frankie answered Victor; Jace answered Austin. The correct answer was Austin and Jace became the new HOH.


	12. Chapter Twelve

            With Jace as HOH, Frankie didn’t feel as safe as he would have if he would have won, but it was close. Of all the people in the house that were left, Jace was the only one that he felt wouldn’t target him. Unfortunately, this also included Zach. Even though Frankie did believe that Zach hadn’t been a part of the plan to get rid of Frankie at the last eviction, he wasn’t sure how much longer that would hold true.

            Frankie thought back to Zach’s HOH when he explained to Frankie his game plan. He wanted to get rid of all the strong players while he had the numbers and then face weak players at the end. Deducing from Zach’s own statements, this clearly indicated to Frankie that he would be on Zach’s radar before long.

            Jace and Frankie were in the backyard, lying in the sun beside each other on the lounge chairs when Jace asked Frankie for suggestions on who to nominate.

            Frankie looked around to make sure no one was within earshot before he said, “Shelby and Alex. They seem to be the strongest on that side of the house.”

            “I was wondering,” Jace said, turning his head to see Frankie better, “What about Zach?”

            “Zach? I don’t believe he has that much power over them.”

            “But he is working with them, right? I mean, it’s pretty obvious that he is not with us. So, is there any reason I shouldn’t focus on him?”

            Frankie sighed, removed his sunglasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, there is no reason not to, but in my opinion, aside from removing one of their numbers, there’s no reason _to_ focus on him. Alex and Shelby are the ones who are making the plans. They are the head of the snake. Probably Alex is the one who is ultimately in charge.”

            Jace nodded, “Okay, that makes sense. I can use Zach as a backup if somebody comes down.”

            “Or you could put up Zakiyah. Everybody likes her so I think whoever she is sitting next to would go home. At least that way you could be fairly certain that one of your noms would leave.” Frankie suggested.

            “Is that what you would have done if you had won the HOH?” Jace asked in a puzzled tone.

            Frankie nodded. “Yes, I would have gone after the brains of the alliance, and if I couldn’t kill it that way, I would go after the heart. If you do enough damage to their alliance, maybe we can get some of them on our side.”

            “Do you really think we can get some of them to join us after that?” Jace asked in surprise.

            “I hope so Jace. Otherwise it is just you and me against all of them. We can’t win every comp from now to the end. We need more people.”

            “And you are hoping that Zach is one of the people to join us, right?”

            Frankie sighed. “I would much rather have Zach with us than against us.”

            “So, is that why you want to keep him off the block?” Jace asked.

            “Partially, and like I said, I don’t believe he is either the brains or the heart of that alliance.”

            Jace took Frankie’s advice and put up Shelby and Alex during the nomination ceremony that week. They didn’t take it well, although, in Frankie’s opinion, they should have seen it coming. Up until the day of the POV comp, they were practically glued to Jace. They spent almost all their time in the HOH room with him. Jace confided in Frankie that they were throwing Zach’s name around as a replacement nom if one of them managed to take themselves off the block.

            “See? That’s exactly what I meant. They see him as expendable and they hold the votes. He would be the one going home on Thursday.”

            “Yeah. They are really pushing for Zach to go up, or if not him DaVonne. They never mentioned Zakiyah’s name,” Jace confided.

            “And you know why, right?”

            Jace nodded. “They are not sure they can beat her, which means she has to be the replacement nom if we need one.”

            The POV comp that week was the ‘Stay or Fold’ game. Frankie was the only one not playing, so he was the host. Jace was the first one eliminated from the comp and Frankie’s heart sank with the knowledge that the chances of both Alex and Shelby remaining on the block were not good. He really didn’t want Alex to be the one to win the Veto because in his opinion, she was the toughest of the women in the house. He had tremendous respect for her as a player, and because of that, he wanted her out. He didn’t get his wish, however. At the end of the comp, the POV necklace was placed around her neck.

            During the POV ceremony, when Jace named Zakiyah as the replacement nom, everyone, except for Frankie and Jace, was shocked. It was evident on their faces. After the ceremony, most of the Houseguests returned to whatever they had been doing before Production had called them to the meeting.

            Frankie went outside and walked over to the stationary bikes. There was a lot of stress and confusion in the house and he wanted to escape from it. He adjusted the tension of the bike for the hardest level. Just as he was about to get on it, he felt someone pull him close from behind.

            “You did that, didn’t you,” Zach asked, whispering in his ear.

            “Did what?” Frankie asked, not turning around.

            “You convinced Jace to keep me off the block.”

            Frankie shrugged, “I just suggested it a few times. We really want Shelby out this week. I was hoping to convince you to vote with me and it won’t matter if Alex and DaVonne do. It will be a tie and Jace can vote her out.”

            Zach pulled Frankie closer for a hug and said with a sigh, “It’s not happening, Frankie. I’m not going to vote against Shelby.” He released Frankie and walked away.

            Frankie turned to watch him leave, his eyes squinting against the afternoon sun. He pressed his lips together hard enough to make them appear to be a thin line on his face and shook his head. He had been having doubts for a while, but now he knew for sure. Zach’s loyalty was with Shelby, not Frankie.

            That Thursday, Frankie cast his vote for Shelby. He had been working on DaVonne trying to secure her vote. He knew that she wasn’t a Zakiyah fan, but she didn’t seem to be on the best of terms with Shelby, so he had a bit of hope. When the votes were read, Zakiyah was evicted by a vote of 3-1.

            The HOH comp that followed Zakiyah’s eviction was a quick one. A ‘Before and After’ question comp. The Houseguests were eliminated during the rounds, until the sixth round when it was down to just Frankie and Shelby.

            Frankie knew that his Big Brother life was at stake. He also knew that Shelby was a very smart woman. These two factors made him feel stressed going one-on-one with her.

            The last question was about Stella and a POV that Frankie had not played in. His mouth went dry. He had not really built a bond with Stella during her time in the house so he had no idea what the answer was. He guessed ‘Before’ and Shelby was declared the winner for her correct answer of ‘After’. Frankie congratulated her on her win, and then watched as her alliance, including Zach, ran to her. Frankie’s eyes met Jace’s and he gave a rueful shrug. It was going to be one of them who would be evicted and they both knew it.

\----------

            Immediately after the nomination ceremony, where Shelby did indeed nominate Frankie and Jace, the Houseguests were put on an indoor lockdown. Shelby was called up to the HOH room. The rest of the Houseguests sat on the couches, filled with curiosity about what was happening.

            Production called Zach into the storage room. He returned seconds later, carrying a small, velvet bag and a card. He read aloud, “Houseguests, Pandora’s Box has been opened. You are to draw a marble from the bag but do not look at it. Once every Houseguest has chosen a marble, you must all display them at the same time. The Houseguest who has drawn the white marble will be in charge of hosting the activity that Pandora’s Box has caused to be visited on the house.”

            One by one they all reached into the bag and pulled out a marble, keeping their fists tightly closed around it. Zach received the last marble in the bag. All the Houseguests stood in a circle with their fists extended. They counted down: “Three, two, one!” and they opened their hands at the same time. DaVonne held the white marble, the rest held red marbles in their hands.

            Production opened the door and instructed the guests to go to the backyard. Once outside, they could see racks and racks of clothing. It looked like a boutique had been set up for them. DaVonne picked up a card and read it aloud: “Houseguests, because Shelby opened Pandora’s Box, the House has been granted a three-minute shopping spree! Every item of clothing that you select must be removed from the hanger, and it must be on some part of your body when the time is up. Since I selected the white marble, I will receive an extra minute to shop.”

            The Houseguests lined up and waited. Production sounded a loud horn, and they all went sprinting to the racks. They tore through them like a school of sharks that had caught the scent of blood. They quickly realized that the hardest part was to remove the clothing from the hangers. Each one of them soon developed a personal system to speed the process.

            The racks were clearly marked as Mens or Womens, along with the sizes to help with the search. DaVonne and Alex were ripping through the Womens section and Zach and Jace were ripping through the Mens section, while Frankie, who is always true to himself, disregarded the gender labeling and seized whatever caught his eye.

            It seemed like no time had passed at all when the buzzer sounded. DaVonne stayed amongst the racks while the others cheered her on from the sidelines. Once her extra minute was over, Production declared an inside lockdown for the Houseguests.

            They made their way to the bedroom, all of them covered from head to foot in clothes from the Pandora’s Box activity, laughing and joking about how fun it had been. Frankie dumped his armloads onto the bed, then reached up and pulled the clothes off the top of his head where he had placed them. He had to unwind a few items from his neck and shoulders, but finally he was free. He examined the clothes he had collected and selected an item and casually slipped it under his pillow.

            He sorted through the rest of the items and recognized they were of good quality and well made and he was pleasantly surprised. Big Brother usually supplied them with the cheapest, store-brand items for everything else. As he was folding his clothes, his eye kept falling on an elegant black shirt that he had selected from the Mens rack. It felt silky to the touch and it caught the light and shimmered in response to it. It was gorgeous. It was a shame that it wasn’t in Frankie’s size. He debated the idea for a moment or so, but then he picked up the shirt and walked over to Zach’s bed.

            “Hey, I grabbed this up by mistake. I love it, but it’s not my size. Would you want it?” Frankie said, extending the shirt to Zach.

            Zach took the shirt and examined it. “Wow! Sharp! Yeah, I would love it, thank you! And you want to hear something weird? I was just looking through my stuff and realized I made the same mistake.” He picked up a white, fitted, button-down shirt, “I guess in the rush I grabbed one from the wrong size rack. Luckily I only messed up on one. It’s yours, if you want it.”

            Frankie took the shirt from Zach’s hand and examined it. “It’s perfect. Thank you!” They chatted a few moments about racing around like lunatics, grabbing clothes as if they had never seen any before, and then Frankie returned to his side of the room. He laid the white shirt down next to the other articles on his bed. He studied it for a second and then looked back at Zach. Zach was watching him and the second their eyes met, Zach grinned and looked away.

            Frankie felt a blush began to cover his face and the tips of his ears grew hot. He was angry with this response because he wasn’t one to blush. That was Zach’s forte, not his. He looked back at the white shirt on his bed and wondered what the odds were that both of them would make the same mistake. Probably not very high, he decided. Then he wondered in the unlikely event that both of them had legitimately made the same mistake, what the odds would be that Frankie’s mistake would be the exact color that he loved best to see on Zach, and Zach’s mistake would be the exact color that he loved best to see on Frankie.

            Frankie grudgingly admitted to himself that snatching that black shirt off the rack may not have been exactly accidental. He may have even noticed the size before he did it. That did adjust the odds a bit. Frankie’s ‘accidental’ grabbing up the black shirt was a little bit on purpose, but Zach’s had to have been an accident. That made more sense.

\----------

            Big Brother arranged a buffet with food from a famous restaurant to be set up in the backyard. The Houseguests, aside from Shelby who was still in the HOH room, dressed in new articles of clothing that they had been able to get earlier. Everyone looked extra nice when they went outside for their dinner. Frankie noticed that Zach had worn the new black shirt that Frankie had given him. He was pleased, but not surprised. Most of the clothing items that Zach had grabbed had been more along the lines of sporting/athletic wear. This dinner did deserve dressier attire.

            The restaurant that provided the buffet specialized in a surf-and-turf menu. Frankie loaded his plate with steak and lobster, along with a big salad. He had bypassed the potatoes and rolls that the others were enjoying in an attempt to watch his intake of bad carbs. After a while, he mentally declared it a cheat day, and went back to the serving table to nab a baked potato and one of their huge yeast rolls.

            Alex suddenly looked up at one of the cameras that had been focused on her. “I wonder if Shelby is watching us.”

            “I’m sure she is,” Frankie answered. “I bet she is having a horrible day today.”

            Zach looked at Frankie quizzically. “Why would you think that?”

            Frankie gave a slight frown, “You must not have watched the older seasons when they used to have Pandora’s Box. It is always good for either the HOH or the Houseguests, not both. Since we have gotten the good side of the twist, she has to have received the bad side.”

            “That sucks,” Zach exclaimed.

            “I wonder if anybody else will get it,” Alex stated.

            “I doubt it,” Frankie said, “It is late in the season—there are only six of us left. It’s too late to do much in the way of huge moves. I just hope they don’t bring back the reset button!”

            “What about the Zingbot?” Zach asked, “Do you think he will be here this year?”

            Frankie shrugged, “It’s possible, but they usually bring him in earlier in the season, so I kind of doubt if we have him this year.”

            “Good. I hated that comp,” Zach muttered, but loud enough that everyone heard. Immediately all eyes were on Frankie.

            Frankie sighed, and looked down at his plate. All the wonderful food he had eaten suddenly felt very heavy in his stomach.

            Later, Production had the Houseguests all return inside while the buffet was removed and the backyard was cleaned. During this time, the Houseguests were each called into the DR to talk about the events of the day. Frankie was the last one called in, and during his session, the backyard was re-opened.

            As Frankie was leaving the Diary Room, he saw Shelby who was just then returning from the HOH room.

            “Was it horrible?” he asked by way of greeting.

            She shrugged, “It wasn’t great. The worst part was watching all of you on the spy screen. It looks like your day was so much fun. I would have died to be able grab clothes off racks like you guys did.”

            Frankie nodded, sympathetically. “Would you wait here for just one second? I’ll be right back.”

            He dashed into the bedroom and retrieved the item he had hidden under his pillow earlier. He ran it back to Shelby.

            “Big Brother said that we could share or trade items if we wanted to, so I grabbed this for you,” he said, offering it to her.

            “For me? Why?” she took the item from Frankie and looked at it. It was a red dress. “Oh my God! I love it!”

            “I don’t like people being left out. And I picked a red dress because you are a fierce woman, and all fierce women should have something red. I had to guess at the size, so I hope it fits.”

            She looked at the tag and then grinned at him, “Perfect! You do know fashion, I will grant you that!” She smiled at him for a second longer, then threw herself at him and gave him a hug, which surprised them both.

            She pulled out of his arms laughing, “You know this doesn’t change anything…you are still my target this week!”

            Frankie laughed, “I know, but I fully intend on winning the Veto and saving myself so I wouldn’t get too excited to see the last of me if I were you! Now—I am a huge superfan; I have been dying all day to hear about Pandora’s Box!”

            “Okay, so I got called up to the HOH and the box was set up in front of the spy screen. On the spy screen I could see a screen shot of my best friend, my family, and even my dog. They were in my apartment. There was a card on the box and when I read it, it said that if I opened the box I could retrieve the remote and push play and watch the video they had made for me. I would also get to experience a special meal and live entertainment. So…I opened the box…”

            “Of course you did! You had to…it’s ‘Big Brother’. You open a box or in my case, push a button, because you can’t NOT do it! It would feel so wrong not to!” Frankie interjected.

            “Exactly! So, I opened the box and pulled out the remote and pushed play. It wasn’t a long video, and they couldn’t say much, but it was so great to see them all. It made the day worth it for me.”

            “Good! I’m so happy for you!” Frankie said with a huge grin.

            “Then the spy screen went black for a few seconds and came on to show you guys in the yard, snatching clothes off the racks. The camera followed all of you back into the house and I watched everybody going through their new clothes and trying them on. It sucked. After a while, the screen when black again. Suddenly, I’m not sure how he got in there, but Steve came in…” She paused.

            “Steve?” Frankie asked.

            “Yeah, the guy who won ‘Big Brother 17’…”

            “Steve Moses,” Frankie supplied.

            Shelby nodded, “He must not have been allowed to talk to me because I tried talking to him and he didn’t answer. He brought his trombone and he started playing songs on it. I think they must have been like his high school’s marching band songs because it sounded like the kinds of songs that you hear at football games.”

            “How was it?” Frankie asked.

            “He plays it very well, and you can tell he loves it. But…it’s the trombone, ya know?”

            Frankie stifled back a laugh at the sight of her face. Her lips quirked at the sound, and soon they were both laughing together.

            “He played a few songs but then he stopped and left the room. The spy screen came back on and all of you were in the backyard, eating dinner. I saw you sneak back and get a baked potato and a roll after you had already filled your plate with healthy, low carb stuff. And, Oh my God! Did you see how many times Zach went back to the buffet to get refills on his plate?!!!”

            Frankie laughed, “No, I didn’t pay attention.”

            “I thought they were going to have to replace the bins with more food! Anyway, probably near the time you all were finishing up, Steve came back into the room pushing a serving cart that had covered, silver servers on it. I figured since you guys had the great food, I would probably have a rat hiding under one of the covers, like in…”

            “‘ _Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?_ ’” , they said in unison, and then laughed together again.

            “Yes! So you have seen it too! I love that movie! Anyway, I pulled the cover off one of the plates and saw it was a teapot with pretty, fancy little cups. The second cover I pulled off were tiny little sandwiches, they kind you see served at tea parties in old movies. And the third cover I removed was covering up a plate of iced oatmeal cookies, which are my favorite. I poured a cup of tea and looked through the sandwiches on the plate to see what was there. I had three kinds to choose from: peanut butter, jelly, or peanut butter and jelly. After he had rolled in the cart, Steve left the room, but suddenly he was back. He wasn’t alone this time though. There were five other people with him and they had on marching band uniforms, and they all had instruments. The entire time I was eating, they were marching around the table in a circle; playing something…I think it was ‘Stars and Stripes, Forever’. As soon as the song would end, they would start it over from the beginning. I am not a fan of the trombone, but man…I really hate the cymbals!”

            The look on her face sent Frankie into another fit of laughter.

            “And you want to know the worst part?” Shelby asked, fighting back laughter, “The cookies weren’t oatmeal cookies…they were iced slop cookies!!!” And then she gave up fighting it and joined Frankie who had fallen back against the wall with the force of his laugh. They slid down the wall together and sat side-by-side on the floor, howling with laughter.

            After a Frankie managed to catch his breath a bit as his laughter slowed up, he got to his feet and extended his hand to help her up.

            “I was so hoping that they would send Jesse, ‘Mr. Pec-tacular’, in to see me. I know they had him as the guest on other Pandora’s Box things. He is so hot; I wouldn’t have considered him a bad prize at all!” She confided.

            “He will probably be at the finale; he usually is. If you think he is hot on TV, wait until you see him in person! Girl…you are going to die! He is gorgeous!” Frankie fanned himself for emphasis. Shelby giggled at the sight. Frankie smiled at her and said, “I think you should go outside and tell the others about your day. They are going to love it! One thing to keep in mind…your opening Pandora’s Box is going to be on the highlight reel for this season. You will always be known for it. Years from now, people will still be able to watch it.”

            Shelby smiled and then looked down at the dress still in her hand. “I know everyone is dressed up in their new clothes, but I would like to save this…for a live show sometime. It is much nicer than the one I have packed. Thank you again. I love it so much.”

            She went to the bedroom and hung her dress up. She and Frankie walked outside together, and as everyone gathered in seats around her to hear the story of her day, Frankie grabbed a seat too, and listened to it all again.

            The next night the Houseguests were all sequestered in different parts of the house. Frankie had drawn the tea room. It wasn’t his favorite room in the house, but at least he was comfortable. He felt bad for DaVonne who had drawn the storage room. It had lots of food in there, but no comfortable seating. Comps that the Houseguests competed in individually always seemed to take forever.

            He could hear who was called down each time, and he could hear the door open and close. It should have given him a good indication of how long each player took, but it didn’t. Some of that time could be getting instructions or a glitch in the game where they had to stop the clock.

            Finally his name was called, so he went outside and found it was the face-morph comp. He read the instructions which stated that there were six pictures that had been morphed. Each picture consisted of the morphing of two teams. No team was used twice, and one team was not used at all.

            He pushed the start button and the six pictures were revealed. He could tell instantly that for one of the teams in each picture, they had used the team pictures that had been on the memory wall. The other team’s faces had been morphed onto that team. He had looked at the team pictures enough to know immediately who the base teams were by their positioning in the picture. All he had to do was determine who the second team was. He grabbed up the cards and started down the line. The last picture was of him and Zach. His mind flashed back to the day that picture had been taken, a week before their entry into the house. It was the first time the two of them had been near each other since their final break-up. They didn’t speak to each other; they simply did as the photographer asked, and when it was over they went their separate ways. Frankie shook his head to clear the memory and to focus on the picture in front of him. He realized that his face and Shelby’s had been morphed. He hung up the Zankie tag, and then the Ballsmashers tag. He quickly scanned the other five to make sure he was happy with his answers, and then ran over and pushed down the button. He heard the ding indicating they were all correct.

            He went back inside and waited. He had no idea how well the others had done. He knew that Alex and Shelby had played face-morph on their season, and Shelby had done really well. He didn’t think any of the others had played on their seasons. His adrenaline was up, so he decided to do his ab work out. He cleared his mind and focused on the exercises. When he was done, he felt better, less stressed. He had done his best and that was all he could do.

            Eventually, they were all called outside to have the times revealed. Since Shelby was the HOH, she hosted the reveal. She started at the bottom of the list which was the order that they did the comp. DaVonne was first she had a time of 6:47. Zach was next with a time of 4:34. Jace 5:52, Alex 7:09, and Shelby 3:55. Frankie’s heart was pounding as she pulled the bar away to display his time—2:26. Frankie had won the Veto!

            During the live show on Thursday, Jace was evicted from the Big Brother house. They were now down to the final five.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

            Production had announced that the HOH comp required active wear. Shortly after Jace left the house, the door to the backyard was opened. This time Frankie thought to wear a hooded jacket on his own. He saw that Zach was wearing one also.

            When he saw the comp he immediately recognized it. It was a version of the balls on the shovel that he had won on his season—then lost it—after the restart button had been pushed and the comp was replayed. This time it was a teaspoon that the players had to arrange different-sized sugar balls in. He felt since he had played this comp twice before, and the other three—Zach, DaVonne, and Alex—had never played it at all…he might have an advantage. The time he won, Production had sprayed them with a cold, but fairly gentle rain; the time he lost, Production had drenched them with icy water. He mentally crossed his fingers that it would be a gentle rain, as he pulled up the hood on his jacket and stepped up on the handle of the spoon.

            He remembered his strategy the two previous times was to take his time, no matter what the rest were doing, as he carefully placed his first ‘sugar’ ball into the bowl of the spoon. The water began to spray on them with a blinding force. He could hear Zach, a few lanes over, yelling to Production about it.

            Alex was in the lane next to Frankie, and from his peripheral vision, he could see her moving very quickly back and forth on her spoon’s handle. He instinctually realized that she was his real threat. He picked up his own speed just a bit.

            He heard a bang as the bowl of someone’s spoon hit the ground too hard, and saw the balls rolling across the plastic grass. He heard a stream of cursing coming from that direction. He didn’t have to look over to realize that Zach had just dropped his spoon. Closer to him he heard Alex quietly giggling over it.

            At one point, after Frankie deposited a ball, he quickly scanned the others’ spoons. DaVonne was at the farthest lane from his. He could see a few balls in her spoon and she was slowly making her way down the length of her spoon’s handle to put in another. Zach, since he had to restart after dropping his, was moving quickly up his handle. He was nearly caught up to the point to where he had lost his spoon’s contents earlier. Alex was nearly finished loading her spoon. Frankie’s spoon was about as equally full as hers, but she was moving faster. Frankie quickly made his way back up his handle to grab another.

            After a few more trips, Frankie was finished filling the spoon. He made his way carefully back up the handle. Alex was ahead of him up the length of her handle. Frankie said a silent prayer that she still had balls to get and that he would have a chance to make it to the HOH buzzer before she did.

            He was almost at the top of his handle when he saw Alex carefully shifting her balance to lower her filled spoon to the ground and hop off. She ran to the buzzer and pushed it, mere seconds before Frankie could make it there. Alex was the new HOH, and Frankie knew that if he did not win the Veto, he would be leaving the Big Brother house that week, once again in fifth place.

            When Alex made her nominations, Frankie wasn’t surprised to find himself on the block with Zach. He knew he was the target, but he also knew that if he won the Veto and took himself down, they didn’t mind losing Zach. Frankie knew that Zach was in the lowest position in their alliance, he just wasn’t sure if Zach knew it.

            Because the eviction for the person in fifth place was always filmed on Tuesday instead of the regular live eviction on Thursday, Production announced that the POV comp would be the next day, with the POV ceremony following it a few hours later. Frankie was aware of how the schedule would be changed since that was when he went home during his season, but the others were surprised. Zach and DaVonne hadn’t made it this far in their seasons, and Alex and Shelby had played BBOTT were everything was live and there were no audiences.

            The next morning, Production woke them up earlier than usual and announced that costumes for the POV were in the storage room. Frankie was the first one out of bed and he hurried to the storage room to see what they were going to wear. He loved it when they gave them costumes; it made it seem as if it were a stage production and felt less real. He really needed to have something fun to think about because he knew that the competition today could very well be his last one in the Big Brother house. If he did not win the Veto, it was going to be over for him.

            DaVonne was coming behind him, tying the belt on her robe as she walked. Frankie got the green light and opened the storage room door, and stood aside and let her go in first. She started laughing before he was even in the door. Frankie stepped inside and saw what had made her laugh, and he joined in.

            They were going to be dressed as babies. The women had little rompers with duckies and bunnies as the pattern. The backside was padded to resemble a diaper underneath, and there were lots of ruffles on the seat area. The men were each given a pair of shorts that had also been padded to resemble a diaper. Both groups had been given baby bonnets, booties, and bibs that read: **I <3 BB**.

            Frankie and DaVonne carried the costumes into the bedroom to show the other Houseguests.

            Frankie handed Zach’s to him as he lay in bed. Zach took one look at it and said, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Which caused Frankie to burst out laughing.

            “No, I swear. Look, here’s mine,” he extended the hanger with the name ‘Frankie’ on it for Zach to see.

            “This is ridiculous! I don’t want to wear that!” Zach said, dropping his costume on the floor beside the bed.

            Frankie was giggling as he picked it up and put it back on Zach’s bed. “Come on, we all have to do it. Don’t be a big baby!”

            Zach rolled his eyes, “Ha ha.”

            Frankie laughed, “Yeah, scratch that. I meant to say, ‘come on…be a big baby’!”

            The Houseguests hurried through breakfast so they could get into their costumes. Everyone but Zach, who was not in the least in a hurry to put on his. By the time he finally made his way into the bathroom to change, everyone else was already in their costumes. Alex and Shelby were at the sink area, doing their hair. They had both opted to pull their hair into puppy ears and were putting curls in them. And Frankie and DaVonne were sitting on the bench, using the mirrors to put on their make-up.

            It took Zach a long time to force himself to leave the stall, and by the time he did, Frankie was the only one still in the bathroom. Frankie had just finished putting on his make-up and was gathering things up to put back into his make-up bag. He looked up when he heard the door to the stall open, and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at the sight of Zach.

            Zach looked really good in his baby costume, except for one thing. From about two inches above the knee and up to the leg opening of the diaper, Zach’s legs were stark white. All of the rest of his body was super tanned.

            “I know…I look ridiculous!” Zach exclaimed.

            “No, you look like a baby Tarzan, which is great! The only problem is…” Frankie paused.

            “I know, go ahead and say it…my legs are too white,” Zach grumbled.

            Frankie laughed, “Well, I must have told you a million times to go to a tanning bed, or even get a spray tan to even it out.”

            “Because my butt glows in the dark!” He stopped suddenly. He realized he had just crossed the boundaries that they had put in place when they first arrived in the house by bring up something from their past relationship. “Uh…I shouldn’t have…” He started to apologize.

            Frankie shook his head and waved his hand. “It was my fault; I said something first. Anyway, there is nothing you can do about your white legs now. You need to put on your bonnet though.”

            “I tried. I can’t figure it out. There are too many strings!” Zach complained.

            “You have to tie it on with the thick ribbons, the rest are for decoration. Here, hand it to me and I will put it on you!”

            Frankie put the bonnet on Zach’s head and then tied the ribbons into a big bow under his chin, a bit jauntily to the side.

            “There, now look how cute you are!” Frankie exclaimed turning Zach to the mirror behind the sinks.

            “Oh my God! This is worse than I imagined! I don’t want the world to see me like this!” Zach said with a scowl.

            “Too late, the live feeders have all seen you. I’m sure there are screen shots of you all over the Internet by now. You are just going to have to deal with it.” Frankie said, laughing. “The rest of us are doing it, and we aren’t complaining.”

            “Yeah, but you look good in yours. You could be the star attraction at a kink bar.” Zach grumbled.

            “Thank you. I think? Anyway, we need to go out and join the others now. I want to get this Veto started.” Frankie said, walking out of the bathroom ahead of Zach. “You know, these shorts feel like they give me a duck bottom.” He began to waddle down the short hallway to demonstrate.

            Zach roared with laughter and without even thinking about it, he swatted Frankie’s butt.

            Frankie jerked to a stop and turned around and faced Zach, who immediately wished he hadn’t done it. Frankie gave him a ghost of a smile, and said, in his best Marilyn voice, “Oh Daddy, don’t mess up my feathers! I have to look my best!”

            Zach looked at Frankie, who was dressed like a baby, walking like a duck, and talking like Marilyn Monroe, and he doubled over laughing. Frankie soon joined him.

            DaVonne, who was standing by the backdoor, heard them, walked over, and stood looking at them with a hand on one hip. “Now what are you two up to? Never mind, I don’t think I even want to know!” She said with a laugh and then walked away. This made the two guys laugh even harder.

            Big Brother’s voice came over the speakers, telling them it was time to play for the Veto. The door opened up and they all stepped outside. The backyard had been transformed into a nursery for giant babies. In the center was a huge playpen filled with balloons. They were given the instructions to enter the playpen and pop the balloons. Some balloons would have a blank card inside, others would have dollar amounts, and one balloon in the pit would have a Veto symbol. Once a player found a balloon with a dollar amount they had to exit the playpen and put the card in the holder under their name. There were six slots. If, after the slots were filled, the player found another dollar amount card, they had to remove one and replace it with the new amount.

            Alex shuddered. “I hate to hear a balloon pop,” she said softly.

            The starting buzzer was sounded and the players ran and jumped into the playpen. They started popping the balloons, which were also filled with confetti.

            Zach popped a balloon and retrieved the card; he read it and yelled, “Hey, Big Brother! If you write the word ‘blank’ on a card, it isn’t really blank anymore!”

            The rest of the Houseguests laughed and continued to attempt to pop the balloons. Frankie quickly understood why Production had given them the baby costumes to wear for the comp; everything was soft with no hard edges to help pop the balloons. Luckily he had a little bit of fingernail growth to use. He had no idea how Zach was doing it because he had no fingernails to speak of; he had never quite conquered his nail-biting habit.

            As the Houseguests popped the balloons, they discovered that most of them were blank and the ones that did have a cash amount on them were tiny amounts. DaVonne even popped a balloon with a card in it for two cents. It took time away as they had to hop out of the playpen, run across the yard, deposit the card in the slot, and then run back to the playpen to start popping balloons again.

            Frankie’s fourth cash card he found was worth five thousand dollars. He was happy about it but a little worried that he had picked the wrong spot to search in. He didn’t think that Production would hide a card worth five thousand dollars and the Veto in the same area. After he deposited the card into his slot, he ran back to the playpen and went to a different spot to start working.

            It was almost a constant stream of Houseguests hopping in and out of the playpen. At first, each time he saw someone leave the playpen his heart would race with dread thinking that they had found the Veto. After a while though, he stopped noticing and kept his mind on the task. He had just located his fifth cash card, worth $34.26 when he heard the chimes that meant someone had pushed the button after finding the Veto. Frankie’s heart sank. It was over for him; he had no hope of staying in the game.

            He looked over and saw it was Zach who had won the Veto. He was standing on the dais with a big, goofy grin on his face, holding the card over his head. Frankie had to smile at him. If he had to lose, he was glad it was to Zach.

            The women all got out of the playpen and ran to Zach to congratulate him. Frankie followed behind. After they stepped away, Frankie gave Zach a quick hug and told him that he had done a great job. He meant to step away then, but Zach grabbed him, pulled him into his arms and held on tight for a moment longer before letting him go.

            Production called for an indoor lockdown and announced the POV ceremony would be held in approximately two hours. Frankie made his way through the house and into the bedroom. He carefully searched through his drawers to find something to wear to the ceremony.

            “Frankie?” he heard Zach call softly from behind him.

            “Don’t, Zach. It’s alright; I’m alright. It’s just a game,” Frankie turned around to face Zach and gave him a small smile, “You have done really well this whole time. If you make it to the end, you have my vote for sure. I will work my ass off in the jury house and try to get you their votes too. And don’t you dare give me a pity vote. I don’t want Alex breaking a tie and voting me out. I want to hear Julie’s voice telling me I am evicted, not Alex’s.”

            Zach looked down at his hands for a bit, nibbling at the corner of his lip with his teeth. He took a deep breath and nodded, “I promise I won’t give you a pity vote. Can I ask you for a favor? Will you wear the white shirt I gave you to the POV ceremony today?”

            Frankie blinked in surprise and then gave a shrug, “You want me to dress up for a POV ceremony? I don’t get it, why?”

            “Because I really want to, and I would feel stupid doing it by myself.” Zach said in a rush. “Do you mind? I mean, you weren’t planning on wearing it…when…?”

            “Tomorrow when I get evicted?” Frankie supplied. “No, I have a beautiful suit that Malan created for me. He told me not to gain any weight while I was in here, but you and Donny kept shoving cake at me, I hope it still fits!”

            Zach looked back down at his hands again, “It’ll fit, Frankie. You haven’t gained any weight. So, will you? Wear it, I mean?”

            Frankie shrugged again and said with a sigh of resignation, “Sure. If it will make you happy, then sure.”

            Zach face lit up from the inside and he gave Frankie his goofy puppy smile. Frankie couldn’t help but to smile back, especially because Zach was still wearing his baby bonnet, and the combination of that smile under that bonnet warmed Frankie’s heart. “Zach, why are you still wearing that baby bonnet?” he asked, pointing at Zach’s head.

            Zach’s smile faded and got replaced with a faint pout, “The stupid strings got all knotted and you tied it tight and I can’t get it off!”

            Frankie laughed and went to work on the ribbons to free Zach. In just a few seconds he had it off and went back to searching through his drawers.

            “Are you going to shower?” Zach asked. He was in one of his own drawers, carelessly rummaging through his clothes.

            “Yeah. It feels like I picked up about fifty pounds of confetti in my diaper,” Frankie said.

            Zach laughed, “Now that is something you don’t hear every day! How much money in total did you win today? I was pretty excited at the time and I don’t remember what they said.”

            Frankie had the items he needed, so he pushed his drawer shut while he answered, “Five thousand, three hundred forty-two dollars and sixty cents.”

            Zach whistled. “You were the big winner! I only ended up with thirty-four dollars and twenty-six cents!”

            “And the Veto.” Frankie stated, flatly.

            “Oh, yeah,” Zach said, looking down at the floor.

\----------

            While Frankie showered he allowed his disappointment to wash over him. He was trying to be a good sport, and he was genuinely happy for Zach, it was just the idea of leaving in fifth place again that really bothered him. He took a deep breath and slowly released it and allowed the disappointment to leave his body. He knew there were worst things in the world. He decided he was going to leave with a smile on his face and his dignity in place.

            Once he got out of the shower, he got dressed in his jeans but left the shirt off to prevent any make-up getting on it. Zach entered the bathroom after Frankie had dried and styled his hair. He was just beginning to put on his make-up.

            “Hey, did you eat lunch?” Zach asked on his way to the shower.

            “No, didn’t feel much like eating. I’ll grab something after the ceremony,” Frankie answered, concentrating on getting his eyeliner applied correctly.

            Zach changed direction from the shower to the sink. He saw Frankie’s opened make-up bag with his bottle of acid reducer pills next to it. He picked up the bottle and examined it. He put it down and pulled a small bottle out of Frankie’s bag.

            “What’s this?” he asked, taking the top off and smelling it.

            “It is a body lotion. It has tiny flecks of glitter in it,” Frankie answered, speaking to Zach’s reflection in the mirror instead of turning his head.

            “It’s pretty. Did you put some on?” Zach asked as he looked closely at Frankie’s arm that was nearest him.

            “No, didn’t think of it.”

            “You should. It’s pretty and it smells nice.” Zach held the bottle in Frankie’s direction.

            Frankie had finished lining his eyes, so he replaced the cap and put it back in his bag. He took the bottle from Zach’s hand, with a small laugh, “Okay, I’ll put it on!”

            Frankie squeezed a bit on his hand and rubbed it on his neck, arms, and chest. “There now, are you happy?”

            “No. Give it to me!” Zach said, playfully snatching the bottle from Frankie’s hand. He squeezed some into his own hand and applied it to Frankie’s back. After he was done smearing it on Frankie’s back, Zach’s hands went to Frankie’s shoulders and began to massage them. He worked out the knots he felt there and after he felt the muscles relax, he stepped away.

            “I’m going to hit the shower now,” he announced as he handed Frankie back the bottle of lotion.

            Frankie looked at the shimmer on his skin and realized he felt much better. Some of it was due to the massage that got rid of his neck stiffness, but most of it was due to seeing the shimmer of the glitter on his body. Popeye had his spinach to give him strength; Frankie had his glitter to give him strength! He thought it was odd that he hadn’t thought to put it on but was really glad that Zach did. He had originally thought to go for a more modest look, but after feeling his spirits rise seeing the glitter, he decided he was going to do a bit more work on his make-up as he reached for his highlighter.

            He had finished with his face and was just putting on his shirt, the white one that Zach had given him, when Zach stepped out of the shower.

            “Whoa! Frankie…man…you look perfect!” Zach said with a huge grin.

            Frankie smiled back, “Thanks Rose. I still feel a bit silly dressing like this for a POV ceremony though.”

            Zach walked to the sink, picked up his toothbrush and loaded it with toothpaste. “Don’t feel silly; you look great!”

            Frankie wandered out of the bathroom and headed for the living room. He took a seat in one of the nomination chairs and waited. After a while, Production called Zach to the DR. He zipped past Frankie in the living room and threw him a grin on his way to the DR. Frankie could see how his eyes were sparkling with excitement as he hurried by.

            Frankie knew, as well as any Houseguest who had ever played the game, that Zach was doing the voiceover for when he had to go and stare at the memory wall before announcing it was time for the POV ceremony. Frankie knew it wouldn’t be much longer. The door to the backyard opened and Production announced that the Houseguests were to go outside and sit in the small lounging area near the door.

            The women were all up in the HOH room together, and Zach was in the DR, so Frankie was the first one out the door. He sat down on the couch and looked out at the backyard. The clean-up crew had done a lot in the two hours since the comp ended. The playpen had been removed; the dais, buzzer, and most of the holders for the money cards had been too. There was still a lot of confetti on the plastic grass though. It would take a while to vacuum that all up. He hoped the cleaning crew would have it cleaned early enough so they could have the backyard for a while tonight. He thought it would be nice to have one more night in the backyard before he left tomorrow.

            The door opened and the three women emerged from inside and joined Frankie. All were surprised at how fancy Frankie was for just a POV ceremony.

            “I know but it wasn’t my idea. Zach wanted us to do it. I think it is because it is the last thing team Zankie will do together.”

            They fell silent after that. And really, there was nothing left to say. Houseguests usually know who will be leaving the house, and for the last period of time the person is still in the house they are treated pretty much like they are invisible. A breathing ghost.

            The door suddenly opened and Zach stuck his head out. He was dressed in the shimmery black shirt that Frankie had given him and he had the Veto necklace on. “It’s time for the Power of Veto meeting,” he announced.

            The Houseguests came in and took seats on the couches. Frankie and Zach took their seats on the nomination chairs. After everyone was settled, Zach rose to speak.

            “Alex, as Head of Household, you have nominated me and Frankie for eviction. As the winner of the Veto, I have the power to use it to save one of us. Frankie, do you have anything that you want to say before I make my decision?”

            Frankie smiled and shook his head ‘no’.

            “Okay then, I do have something to say,” Zach stated. “After BB16, I used to do broadcasts sometimes. Fans would often ask me questions. Once a fan asked me if Frankie and I had played the ‘Hunger Games’ instead of ‘Big Brother’ and we were the last two left, what would I do—kill Frankie or let Frankie kill me. I didn’t answer the question. I could have but something told me to wait, there would come a day when I would answer that question. Today is that day,” Zach paused, took a breath and said, “Frankie lives.” He pulled the Veto necklace over his head and put it on Frankie.

            “Zach, no! You can’t do this!” Frankie protested.

            “Uh, yeah I can, Rose! It’s my Veto and I can use it on whichever one of us I want. It’s in the rulebook.” Zach grinned and turned to look at Alex and found her face was a shocked as Frankie’s. “Alex, since I have Veto’d one of your nominations, you have to name a replacement nom.” He looked over and saw that Frankie was still sitting in the nomination chair. Zach gently took a hold of Frankie’s arm and pulled him to his feet. He moved Frankie a few steps to the couch and had him sit down; the shock had left him frozen and motionless.

            Alex stood and looked down at her hands that were clutched together. “DaVonne, I’m sorry.”

            DaVonne nodded and got up and moved to Frankie’s newly vacated seat. Zach walked to the Veto box. “This Veto meeting is adjourned,” he said, and closed the lid.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

            Zach pulled a still shocked Frankie into his arms for a hug. He whispered in Frankie’s ear, “You’re going to vote to keep me, aren’t you?”

            Frankie nodded, “Of course! After what you just did for me? Of course!”

            “I’ve got to get into Shelby’s ear before they do,” he whispered. He pulled away from Frankie and went to give Shelby a hug. Frankie could see her stiffen in Zach’s arms and he could tell she was very angry.

            Alex and DaVonne were both very upset so they left the living room and went up to the HOH room. Shelby was going to follow them, but Zach steered her into the storage room. Frankie was left standing alone in the living room.

            He could hear the cleaning crew outside vacuuming up the remains of the POV comp. Realizing that they might get the backyard later, Frankie decided to change clothes. He walked to the bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt. He came to the realization that the reason that Zach had wanted them to dress up for the Veto meeting is because he had known it was going to be shocking and one that would make the highlight reel. Zach must have wanted them to look their best. It was actually kind of thoughtful of Zach who usually didn’t think about such things. Frankie looked down and saw the glitter on his chest and he had to smile. It was a small detail, Zach encouraging Frankie to put it on, but Zach knew how important glitter was to Frankie and that it would be able to be seen for years to come on the video clip.

\----------

            “I have nothing to say to you, Zach!” Shelby declared after he maneuvered her into the storage room. “Frankie was supposed to leave tomorrow! We had it all worked out, and you screwed it up!”

            “I don’t know who this ‘we’ is, because I certainly wasn’t consulted in this plan! I thought ‘we’,” he indicated the two of them, “were the ‘Dream Destroyers’. We have been planning the end of the game since the beginning and this wasn’t in our plans. Or have you forgotten?”

            “No… but…I mean…Frankie is scary good at comps, and we finally had him! Why wouldn’t we do it now, while we still have the numbers, instead of later when it is just the two of us?”

            “I told you that I had to be the one to do it, and leaving in fifth place again? How is that him getting what he deserves?!! It’s just a re-hash of our season! And if he was gone, I wouldn’t be able to keep my end of the bargain—getting Alex out for you! And make no mistake, she really needs to go but I can’t do it alone!” Zach said, barely managing to keep his voice lowered.

            “I don’t know, Zach. I feel bad about plotting to get rid of her now. I’m not sure if I want to go through with it,” she mumbled, with her head down.

            Zach nodded, “I was worried about that. I warned you that it would become a dog-eat-dog situation near the end. Let me show you something,” he said as he gathered up some fruit and vegetables from the bins. “This potato is DaVonne, okay? The pineapple is Alex, avocado is Frankie, and the apple is you. If I am evicted that will be who is left in the house. Alex can’t play in the next HOH,” he said, moving the pineapple to the side. “This leaves you, Frankie, and DaVonne playing. Let’s supposed that you win the HOH and you put up Frankie and DaVonne,” he said, moving the pieces around for her to see. “Alex wins the Veto and votes Frankie out,” he removed the avocado as he said this, “That leaves you, Alex, and DaVonne to go into the finals. It’s pretty much a good bet to say that DaVonne won’t win so it will be you and Alex. If Alex wins she would be a fool not to take DaVonne to the final two—DaVonne hasn’t won anything, no major moves in the game—Alex wins. But suppose she did take you—most people viewed Alex as the leader of the alliance, and she had a better social game then you—Alex wins. I know if you won, you wouldn’t take DaVonne, so that means—Alex wins. So you see, DaVonne and Alex both have to leave or you have no chance.”

            “So wait a minute,” she said, arranging the items again. “Why wouldn’t I take DaVonne and I win the game?”

            Zach gave a small laugh, “Shelby, to do that, you would have to look Alex in the face and personally evict her. Could you do that?”

            She shook her head, “No. She’s my friend. But what about you and Frankie though? If something went wrong and Frankie was the winner of the final HOH, he would take you to the end. Even if you did win and took me—I don’t think I could beat you.”

            Zach laughed, “Are you kidding? You would have all the women’s votes because they were closer to you and probably most of the guys’ votes too because I was behind a lot of their evictions!”

            Shelby stared at the items on the countertop for a second or two and then she nodded. “I see it. My only hope in this game is to keep you and vote DaVonne out. Should I tell them?”

            “Hell no! Make them think you are going to vote to keep DaVonne. Alex may be upset after the eviction, but there isn’t much she can do at that point. She can’t play HOH and the three of us will work together to see that either Frankie or I wins the Veto. She will be gone at the next eviction and your hands will be clean.”

            “So, I have to throw the Veto, too?” Shelby whined.

            “No, you don’t have to, but you may want to, especially if Frankie is the HOH. It would probably be you and her on the block, if you won the Veto, you would have to make the call to have either her or I evicted,” his hands indicated the produce still on the counter, “We have already ran the scenarios.”

            She sighed, “Are you positive that you have Frankie’s vote to stay?”

            Zach nodded, “Positive.”

            “Okay. I will vote out DaVonne. It’s really my only option.” she shrugged, walked over to the door, opened it, and walked out.

            Zach stayed behind. He put the food back in the bins, after juggling with them a bit. He opened up the refrigerator and got out the sliced turkey. He ate a couple of pieces of it and put the rest back. He figured enough time had passed for him to leave the storage room without drawing attention if those in the HOH room were watching the house on the spy screen.

            He walked through the living room and into the kitchen. Frankie was sitting at the counter, eating a grilled cheese sandwich.

            “Did Shelby go up to the HOH room?” Zach asked.

            “Yeah, a few minutes ago,” Frankie answered. He had cut his sandwich in half, so he picked up the half he hadn’t bitten off of and handed it to Zach.

            “Thanks, Frankie! I’m starving! I’m surprised to see you eating bread though,” Zach said as he took a bite.

            “Whole grain bread. If I am going to eat carbs, I am going to eat nutritious ones. So, have you got her vote?” Frankie asked.

            “I think so. At least I hope I convinced her. They could get her to change her mind, but if she values her game, she won’t. If Production would open up the backyard for a while, I could get them away from her.” He chewed the last part of his half sandwich. “Frankie?”

            Frankie laughed, “Yes Zach, I will make more sandwiches!”

            Zach laughed as he went to the sink to rinse the butter off of his hands. “I’m going to change out of this before I get butter stains on it.” He dried his hands and Frankie got up and moved to the refrigerator to get out the butter and cheese. Zach walked quickly over to the refrigerator and bent down so the door was blocking him from the spy camera in the HOH room. “You do remember the ending to “The Hunger Games” movie, right?” Zach asked in a whisper.

            “Which one?” Frankie asked.

            “The original. It was the only one that was called just ‘The Hunger Games’. Anyway, Katniss and Peeta actually came face-to-face with the question of kill the other one or be killed by the other one. Do you remember what happened?”

            “Uh...they decided to commit suicide, right?” Frankie asked.

            Zach grinned. “Now I know why you got so frustrated when I didn’t remember Dolores Umbridge when we first came into the house.” He paused and leaned in closer to whisper, “They beat the system; they both lived, Frankie! That’s my plan for us. If it doesn’t work, then at least I gave it my best shot and bought you some time.”

\----------

            The next day was the studio eviction. It was taped live but wouldn’t be broadcasted until the show on the next day. It was basically the same as a double eviction week, just not two on the same show.

            Zach was hyper while he was getting ready for the eviction. Frankie knew that this was because he wasn’t sure which way Shelby was going to vote. Zach hadn’t been able to talk to her after their meeting in the storage room. Alex and DaVonne had kept her close to them at all times. If the vote went to a tie and Alex broke it, Zach would be the one leaving.

            During the show, Frankie was the first to cast his vote to evict. As he came out of the room, he met Shelby in the hallway. She gave Frankie a small nod as she walked by him to cast her vote. Within a short time she returned to the living room and took her seat.

            Julie came on the TV screen in the living room and announced: “Houseguests, the votes are in! When I reveal the vote, the evicted Houseguest will have just a few moments to say ‘goodbye’, gather his or her belongings, and walk out the front door. By a vote of two to zero, Zach…you are safe! DaVonne, you have been evicted from the ‘Big Brother’ house.”

            DaVonne hugged Alex tightly; she hugged the other three in progressively weaker embraces. She saved Shelby for last and barely made any contact with her. Alex was shooting daggers at Shelby with her eyes and Shelby was barely holding back her tears as DaVonne walked out the door.

            Frankie and Zach walked to the Memory Wall to watch DaVonne’s picture fade from color to black and white. Zach gave a quiet chuckle. “That was dirty of Julie! You should have felt my heart when she said my name. I thought you had been lying to me.”

            Frankie patted Zach’s arm and laid his head on Zach’s shoulder for a second. “Poor baby! When Shelby and I met in the hall, she gave me a nod, so I thought you were probably safe. And you should have known since it wasn’t a tie that you were safe. After what you did to save me, I wasn’t about to let you down.”

            Alex and Shelby joined them and the final four watched DaVonne’s picture change. Production came over the speaker and instructed them to take places on the couches and wait for Julie’s next announcement. When Frankie sat down on the couch, he wasn’t truly surprised to find Alex come and sit next to him. After all, he was the only person in the room who had not disappointed her. She had probably known that he was going to vote to keep Zach.

            Shelby and Zach sat across from them on the opposite couch. Shelby was visibly upset and would not look up from the study of her hands. Frankie could tell by Zach’s eyes that he was bursting with excitement.

            They sat in silence for a while. The tension was very palpable in the room. They could faintly hear the applause from the live audience outside the walls.

            The TV screen came on and they could see Julie. “Congratulations, Houseguests! Alex, Shelby, Frankie, Zach—you are the final four! We are about to begin the HOH competition. As a reminder, Alex, as outgoing HOH you are not allowed to compete. All others should go to the backyard now.”

            They all got up and moved to the backdoor, arriving there just seconds after it opened. When they walked outside, Frankie could tell it was the regular final four “Before and After” HOH comp just by the pie-shaped sections. He stepped into the one with his name on it.

            Frankie was nervous, but then Shelby missed the first question. Frankie and Zach answered correctly. She missed again on the fifth question. Once he had a two answer lead on her, Frankie relaxed a bit. He still wasn’t certain where Zach’s loyalties actually were, but he felt better knowing that neither Shelby nor Alex could be HOH. Although the real power lay in the Veto during the final four, he wanted to win the HOH so at least he knew he would be safe.

            He and Zach were tied going into the sixth question and they both answered it correctly. However, Zach missed the seventh question; Frankie answered it correctly and was declared the winner of the HOH.

            Instead of going directly into the house afterward, the Houseguests were told they were on outdoor lockdown. Frankie grabbed a bottle of water from the mini refrigerator and sat down on the sofa. Zach walked around for a bit before he also grabbed a water and sat down near Frankie. In silence they watched the two women alternately glaring at one another or avoiding eye contact from where they were sitting across from each other on the lounge chairs.

            Zach sighed and then leaned in closer and whispered, “Who’s your target?”

            Frankie shrugged, “Either of them, although I imagine you would prefer Shelby to stay.”

            “I would, Frankie. I’ve made some promises,” Zach admitted.

            “Then you had better hope neither of them wins the Veto. If one of them does, it could be you who leaves.”

            Zach sighed again and then took a big drink of his water. They sat quietly the rest of the time until Production called them inside.

            Production had them all walk in together. Frankie suspected the reason, and he wasn’t disappointed. There, in the middle of the cavernous dining room, was the mini table. The tiny one with only four chairs.

            In less than two days, one of these chairs would be empty. Frankie wasn’t worried because he knew that he would be going to the finals. He was worried about who he would be facing in the final three though. He knew that he was capable of winning the comps, but the other three were capable of it too. Zach’s plan of having all the strong players gone by the end hadn’t quite worked out that way.

            Alex was called into the DR and Zach and Shelby went to the tearoom. Frankie was left alone. The house felt brittle with tension. Frankie remembered times in the CBB house when it would get extremely tense, Renee would cook a big meal. Sometimes Frankie would help her. It kept them busy, passed the time, and removed them from the tense situations. It fed their bodies and their souls.

            Frankie walked over to the storage room and pressed the button to request entry. The light changed from red to green. Frankie opened the door and went in. He searched the shelves, refrigerator, freezer, and the fresh ingredients first. He was satisfied with what he found, a bit lacking on the fresh herbs, but he could substitute them with the dry ones in the kitchen. They wouldn’t taste quite as good, but they would do. He began to gather everything he would need and his arms were near to overflowing before he left the room.

            As soon as he reached the kitchen and unloaded his arms, he began. He had to use the stupid ceramic knife to chop with, but he managed. By the time Alex left the DR, the food was starting to perfume the air with the smell of Italian herbs.

            “It smells heavenly in here!” Alex said, walking into the kitchen and seeing Frankie hard at work. “I hope you are cooking enough for all of us!”

            Frankie looked away from stirring the spaghetti in the huge pot of boiling water and smiled at her, “Of course I am! I wouldn’t make someone smell this and not be able to eat it.”

            Alex noticed the loaf of bread that had been cut open and spread with garlic and butter that Frankie was preparing to put into the oven. “Bread and spaghetti? Those are bad carbs, aren’t they?” She asked with a smirk.

            “Cheat day,” Frankie declared, with a laugh. “I have been having a lot of them lately.”

            “Okay, put me to work. What can I do to help?” she offered.

            Frankie put the bread in the oven and set the timer. He looked around and found that the salad wasn’t made yet, so he asked her to tear the greens. She scrubbed her hands and started right on it.

            They worked together very comfortably, and in a very short time, dinner was ready. He told Alex to go ahead and take her seat at the table while he fetched the others. As soon as Zach and Shelby entered the room to take their places at the table, the tension began to climb again.

            Frankie started telling funny stories about various auditions he had been on. After a while the others started telling their own funny stories. Frankie noticed that they all talked only to him, but that was okay because at least it proved they could all sit together and enjoy a meal.

            After dinner, Zach helped him clean up the mess. Shelby went to take a shower and Alex was in the bedroom. She said she didn’t want to wait until the last minute to begin packing for fear of leaving something behind. Frankie suspected that she really just wanted to work off some of her emotions by keeping busy.

            Usually he and Zach would talk and joke around while doing dishes. Not that night though. They were silent as both could feel the approaching storm, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

            After the last pot was washed, Frankie handed it to Zach and said with a sigh, “I hope they give me the key to the HOH room soon. I want to have somewhere to go before those two start to go at each other.”

            Zach nodded. “I don’t blame you. It feels like it is going to be bad.”

            They walked to the living room and sat near each other so they could talk quietly.

            “They were pretty close outside the house, weren’t they?”

            “Yeah,” Zach answered. “I think so.”

            Frankie shook his head, “That makes it so much worse. The more you care, the worst the fight is when it comes.”

            Zach looked down at his hands and began to pick at his fingers. “Yeah, I know.”

            Frankie was sitting on one of the couches and Zach was sitting in one of the nomination chairs. Frankie realized they were in the same positions they had been during their big argument during their season. No sooner had he made this realization than Production called him into the DR.

            “Thank God!” Frankie said as he jumped to his feet and hurried to the DR to get his key.

            Right after Frankie entered the DR, Zach heard a blow dryer turn on in the bathroom. Alex stormed out of the bedroom and stomped her way through the living room. She picked up speed and was almost running as she got nearer the bathroom.

            Zach heard the dryer shut off and heard Alex’s and Shelby’s voices as they began to yell at each other. He got up and hurried into the bathroom to see what was going on.

            “You need to keep your hands off _MY_ hair dryer; you didn’t even ask me if you could use it!” Alex screamed angrily.

            “Why would I ask? I use it every day, just like you use _MY_ curling iron!” countered Shelby.

            “That was before you stabbed me in the back! We had it all planned out…we knew that Frankie was going to vote for Zach, you were supposed to vote for DaVonne, and I was going to break the tie and send Zach out!” Alex paused and looked at Zach who was leaning against the wall, listening. “No offense,” she said. He bit back a grin and shook his head.

            “I know what the plan was, and I also know that you never intended to take me to the end. You were going to take DaVonne because she hasn’t won anything. You knew you could beat her in the final two!” Shelby accused.

            Alex looked shocked, but she didn’t deny it. “If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t even be in this game! I should have picked Whitney. At least I would have known going into it that she would stab me in the back. I never expected it from you!” She grabbed her blow dryer off the counter and stormed out of the bathroom.

            Shelby watched her leave, a scowl on her face.

            “What did she mean when she said she picked you to be here?” Zach asked.

            Shelby huffed, “What? Oh, they wanted Alex and Morgan as a team.”

            “Who’s Morgan?” Zach asked?

            “‘Who’s Morgan’?!!! Morgan was the winner of BBOTT! Don’t tell me you never watched my season!” she rolled her eyes, “Morgan and Alex are sisters. ‘Big Brother’ wanted another set of siblings to be on the show, but Morgan had already signed a contract with a modeling agency so she couldn’t come on. They gave Alex her choice of who she wanted to partner with: me or Whitney. She chose me because we were in an alliance together on the show and we stayed friends after.”

            Zach gave a slight nod, “Okay, well who is Whitney?”

            Shelby sighed, “Whitney was also on our season. She was in an alliance with us, but she joined the other side of the house—with Jason and Danielle.”

            “Okay, this is all news to me,” Zach said, running his hand through his hair. “I didn’t know that she was allowed to choose her teammate. I wasn’t given that option. I wonder if anyone else was.”

            “Who wants to see my HOH room?” Frankie yelled from the other room.

\----------

            Frankie managed to get his letter read to everyone before Alex and Shelby began bickering again. Shelby ran out of the room and Alex followed almost immediately.

            Zach turned to Frankie and said, “Please don’t make me go down there! I’m begging you!”

            Frankie laughed. “It’s okay; you can stay up here with me.” He dropped down on the bed and turned on the spy screen. Zach joined him. They found Alex right away—she was sitting alone in the living room. Frankie scrolled through all the other cameras and couldn’t locate Shelby.

            “I bet she is in the bedroom. I wouldn’t be surprised if she is crying. She has been on the verge since the scene in the bathroom,” Zach said.

            “What happened in there? I came out of the DR and nobody was around. Alex came charging past me on her way to the bedroom with fire in her eyes.”

            “At first it was about Alex’s blow dryer but then it turned into Alex accusing Shelby of stabbing her in the back by voting to save me,” Zach explained.

            “I can’t wait to get home and watch the episodes because I am dying to know how you did that,” Frankie said, lounging back against the pillows, aimlessly scrolling though the screens on the spy screen.

            Zach giggled, “Frankie! Stop! You don’t have to wait and watch the episode. I’ll tell you if you want to know!”

            “Yes, Rose! I want to know!” Frankie said with a grin.

            “I told Shelby that Alex wanted to keep DaVonne in the game because she was planning on taking her to the final two. DaVonne hasn’t won anything so it would be an easy win. Shelby has won so Alex wouldn’t want to take the chance of losing to her. When they were arguing in the bathroom, Shelby accused Alex of planning on cutting her at the end in favor of DaVonne.”

            Frankie laughed, “What did Alex say?”

            “She neither confirmed nor denied it.”

            “Which means it was true. Very smart, Zach!” Frankie said.

            “Funny thing is…I was just saying shit to get her to save me. I didn’t know it was true!” Zach said, laughing.

            The watched Alex get up from her seat in the living room and head down the hall towards the bedroom.

            “They are either going to fight or make up. For your sake, I hope they fight. I’m putting them on the block and if one of them wins the Veto tomorrow, you could be in danger,” Frankie stated.

            “So wait, noms and Veto are tomorrow? Is the Veto ceremony tomorrow too?” Zach asked, confused.

            Frankie laughed. “After all this time Zach, you still have never watched an entire season, have you? There is no Veto ceremony for the last Veto. There is only one vote—it won’t be mine because I am HOH. It will be one of you three. It will be you if either you or I win, but if one of them win it, you will take their place on the block and they get to vote for who leaves. No time to campaign—which I suspect wouldn’t do you any good if Alex wins the Veto anyway, and at this point, I’m not even sure if you could get Shelby. They could use their vote to restore their friendship.”

            “That sucks!” Zach exclaimed.

            “It really does. That’s why we have to work really hard to win this Veto.”

\----------

            The next morning, the nomination ceremony was held. To no one’s surprise, Frankie nominated Shelby and Alex. They were still on indoor lock down and the tension between Alex and Shelby seemed to be growing instead of lessening. Frankie and Zach escaped back up to the HOH room as soon as they could.

            Once they reached the room, Zach flopped on the bed, put the headphones on and turned on Frankie’s music. Frankie lay down on the floor and did his ab exercises. Zach scanned the spy screen and saw Shelby sitting in the living room alone; Alex was nowhere to be seen.

            “God, we are boring!” Zach said.

            Frankie laughed, “It’s a good thing the feeds are down right now. It’s going to get worse when it is just the three of us.”

            “I wish the Veto comp was over. This waiting is making me nervous.” Zach complained.

            Frankie nodded, “Me too and I can’t even be voted out. I can’t imagine how the three of you must be feeling.”

            “I’m just glad we could be up here alone; away from them.”

            “Tonight’s the last night though. The HOH room gets closed in the morning for the rest of the season.” Frankie said, with a touch of sadness in his voice.

            “No shit?! I just figured it was yours until the end.” Zach said, partially sitting up.

            “No, they always close it. After the eviction tomorrow, there is no longer an HOH in charge.”

            “It’s so weird to think about how there were twenty-six people playing this summer, and now we are down to the final four. The house seems so big and empty now.” Zach said, picking at the lint on the HOH bed.

            “Yeah, but it is only for a short time. Even for those who make it all the way to the end, there’s only a bit over a week left. We will all be going back to our regular lives.”

            They sat in silence for a while, each absorbing that thought.

\----------

            Production announced that it was time for the Veto competition and everyone gathered at the backdoor waiting for it to open. Once they stepped outside, Zach let out a bark of laughter. “I can’t believe they did this!”

            “I can,” Alex said, “They had these on BBOTT. Jason won and dedicated his win to Frankie.”

            “Did either of you play it?” Frankie asked Alex and Shelby. They both answered that they hadn’t.

            “Morgan was the only one from our alliance still in the house at that point. We didn’t have jury, so I went home and watched from there.”

            Frankie walked over to the one he had been assigned and picked up the chains and gave them an experimental tug. They were much smaller and lighter than the others had been. In fact, the whole thing was much smaller. This was meant for one person, not a two-person comp that one person had to do alone.

            Frankie was standing in front of a miniature version of the equipment used when he was forced to play the ‘Battle of the Block’ alone. Zach walked over and clapped Frankie lightly on the shoulder. “This time I’m going to beat you!” he said, laughing.

            Frankie pulled the chains and zipped his bar up to the top without having any stress or strain on his muscles, unlike before when he thought his arms would come out of their sockets. He looked at Zach, grinned, and said, “You can try!”

            The instructions were simple. There were ten cups that the balls had to be placed in. Each spot had a question and each ball was an answer. The questions were involving who was HOH at the time certain events occurred.

            Once they were given the signal to start, Frankie read the question at the ten spot. He remembered from the time he played before that the higher the cup, the harder it was to maneuver the ball into it. He knew the answer to the question, so he located the ball with the answer, loaded it on the bar, and zipped it up to the ten cup. A few seconds of adjustments, and the ball dropped neatly into the cup.

            On down the line he worked. One by one, until he finally dropped the answer ball into the first cup on the chart. Once a ball was in a spot, there was no way to change an answer, so he prayed on his way to the buzzer that his answers were correct. He pushed it and waited a few seconds and then heard the bells signaling that he had won.

            Zach came running, and he was laughing. He grabbed Frankie around the waist and picked him up and spun the two of them in a circle. “I knew you would crush it! I knew it!” he said, still laughing. “I only got four of them in!”

            Zach finally set Frankie back down on his feet and Alex and Shelby came over to congratulate him.

\----------

            That night, Frankie and Zach were alone in the HOH room. Alex and Shelby were downstairs screaming at each other. Alex knew her game was over and she was venting her frustrations on Shelby. Shelby was full of guilt and was being defensive. Frankie and Zach had the headphones lying on a pillow between them so they could share the music. Ordinarily this would have gotten them scolded, but with all the action going on downstairs, no one in Production noticed them bending the rules.

            “You want to know something weird? I think I’m going to miss this room,” Zach declared.

            “Not so weird; I was thinking the same thing.”

            Zach pointed to an empty space near what used to be the door to the bathroom. “Right there is where I first saw you dance. It was during your first HOH on 16, and I walked in and saw you dancing like you were a backup dancer for Madonna. I was mesmerized.” He smiled at the memory and when his eyes met Frankie’s, his smile faded. “I’m sorry. That kind of violates the whole ‘clean slate’ thing, doesn’t it?”

            “It does, but that’s okay. I’m feeling nostalgic for those days myself. The Bomb Squad was a mess, but The Detonator days were pretty good. You, me, Christine, Cody, and Derrick. And Caleb, our unofficial member. We had some good strategy sessions but mostly what I miss are the times we just all hung out together.” Frankie stated.

            “Yeah. I do too. Hey, do you remember the time…” Zach began, and for the next hour or so they laughed and talked about their shared memories of another time in the same place.

Since Frankie had relaxed his stance on bringing things up from the past, Zach thought it might be okay to ask him something that he had been wondering about since the scene with Shelby and Alex in the bathroom. He didn’t want to come right out and ask, so he thought he would lead up to it.

            “You said you had a vacation in Hawaii before coming here this time. How long were you there?” Zach asked.

            “A couple of weeks,” Frankie answered, “Then I flew back here and entered sequester.”

            “So, when you went to Hawaii, you had already signed your contract?”

            “Yeah a few weeks before, that’s why I wanted to take a vacation first. Why?” Frankie asked.

            “No reason. Just making conversation,” Zach answered but he was frowning slightly.

            “That is your ‘thinking’ face,” Frankie said, reaching up to Zach’s face and stroking away the frown. “What is it?”

            “You had already signed the contract before I got it. I just didn’t notice the date you signed it. It must have been quite a while before I got it. It doesn’t matter, I was just thinking.” Zach said dismissively. “Can I ask you something? It is probably none of my business so I won’t be offended if you don’t want to answer.”

            “Well, I suspect I’m not going to like it, but you have me intrigued. Ask.”

            “Did he not want you to come back on the show?” Zach asked, a bit timidly.

            “He?” Frankie asked.

            Zach reached over and touched Frankie’s ring finger with his index finger, “He.”

            “No. He didn’t object to me being on the show. He knew how much I love it. There were other problems that we had that occurred near the same time. The timing was purely coincidental,” Frankie said, sitting up and turning on the spy screen. He could see the two women sitting on the couches facing each other and talking. “Good. It looks like they are making up. I would hate for them to allow a game to destroy their friendship.”

            Zach leaned back against the pillow. He knew that Frankie wanted to change the subject, so he didn’t push it. “I’m just glad they aren’t screaming at each other anymore. I was worried they were going to keep it up all night. We really should get some sleep since we have an endurance comp tomorrow after the eviction.”

            Frankie turned off the spy screen and lay back down. He put his sleep mask on and lay still for a long time, willing himself to fall asleep. He could tell by Zach’s breathing that he wasn’t asleep either.

            “Are you worried?” Frankie asked.

            “About tomorrow? No. A bit worried about everything that is coming up in this final week. Excited too. It’s funny, but I almost didn’t sign the contract.” Zach admitted.

            “What?” Frankie asked in surprise, “Why?”

            “I don’t know. It just didn’t sound like something I wanted to do again. If I hadn’t signed it, who do you suppose they would have paired you with?”

            “Caleb. I mean, I imagine it would have been Caleb. Who else would there be?”

            “Christine, maybe. Anyway, I’m glad I’m here now,” Zach said.

            Frankie didn’t answer; he just lay there in silence. Finally, long after Zach had given up the hope that he was going to respond, Frankie quietly said, “I’m glad you signed the contract.”

\----------

            The next day, during the live show, Frankie did not use the Veto. Zach was the only one with a vote; he used it to evict Alex. After the live show ended, they were told to get dressed in active wear. The three of them were about to embark on the first of three competitions that would determine the final HOH of the summer.

 


	15. Chapter Fifteen

            After getting changed, the three meet at the backdoor and they all walked out together. There were handlers there to help them get in place and explain the rules to them. They were all seated on top of huge teabags perched over a giant cup, the men on each end, and Shelby in the center of the line. Their teabags got dunked into the cup of water a time or two, then they would be slammed against the side of the cup. The bags would then return to the center of the cup, where the process would begin again.

            “This seat is killing me,” Shelby complained after a few rounds of dunks and slams.

            “The seat’s not bad, but I hit the wall frontwards the first time and my knees are hurting,” Zach admitted. “Frankie, you doing okay?”

            Frankie laughed and said it was hard for him not to make any jokes about teabags, but he was doing fine. And he was for the time being. He knew that the water was pretty chilly, and evening was coming on. Soon he was going to lose feeling in his hands and feet. He was going to take advantage of the times they weren’t moving to take turns flexing his hands, always making sure to hold on tight with the other one to keep from falling.

            They were dunked and slammed repeatedly for a long time after that. After about an hour, during one of the dunks, Production kept them down in the water for a while. Their heads and shoulders were above the water, but nothing else was. Zach joked that the machine was broken and this was going to be it for the rest of the time.

            No sooner had the words left his mouth then they were yanked back up and slammed into the wall three times. On the third hit, Shelby lost her grip and fell off.

            The bar, holding the three teabags and the men was raised high, and a handler helped Shelby exit from the cup.

            She assured them that she was okay, and went inside to get a shower and get warmed up.

            Zach and Frankie continued on. They were too far apart to hear each other very well over the machinery that was running the teabags so they didn’t talk much.

            They had all learned, right from the first encounter with the wall, to turn their bodies to the side. Frankie alternated sides with each hit; he reasoned it was better to have two sides aching as opposed to one side being in actual pain. He maintained his early routine of flexing his hands at every opportunity.

            It was close to an hour and a half after Shelby had fallen that Zach hit the wall knees first and was flipped off backwards into water. The handlers scrambled over to help him, but he came up out of the water on his own. He smiled and waved them away and half walked, half swam to Frankie’s perch.

            “Congratulations Frankie!” he said happily, “Here, let me help you down. No need to drop into the water again.” He grabbed Frankie from the waist and pulled him down. He carried Frankie in his arms to the steps. Frankie grabbed the handrails and began to climb out of the cup. Once at the top, he glared down at Zach who was starting to climb up.

            “What did you do?” Frankie hissed.

            “What do you mean? I fell off,” Zach answered simply.

            Frankie stood outside the cup, full of questions, but Zach jumped off the ladder and ran towards the house calling over his shoulder, “Come on, Frankie! It’s cold out here and there is a hot shower calling your name!”

            Shelby hurried in from the bedroom when she heard the door to the backyard open, and Zach bolting in. “Hey! Who won?” she called.

            “Frankie,” Zach answered as he zipped past her, headed to the bathroom.

            Frankie entered the house and Shelby congratulated him. He thanked her, and then headed to the bathroom. Zach had turned on both showers to get hot, and was pulling off his wet clothes by the time Frankie reached the bathroom.

            Frankie walked close to him and said in a low voice, “You threw that comp.”

            Zach gave a little laugh and reached over to unzip Frankie’s jacket for him, “No, I didn’t. I forgot to turn to the side and I took a direct hit. It knocked me off backwards.” He stepped into his shower stall, closed the door, and removed his pants and underwear and draped them across the top of the stall door.

            Frankie had a hard time removing his clothes because his hands felt numb and useless, but he eventually managed. As he showered, a bit of the feeling returned to his hands. Constantly flexing them during the challenge had helped and it did seem like the water wasn’t as cold for this challenge. And they hadn’t been sprayed, just dunked. His feet were still numb though.

            Zach stepped out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and left the bathroom. By the time Frankie had turned his water off and was drying himself, Zach returned to the bathroom carrying some of Frankie’s clothes.

            “Before you say anything, I was careful not to mess up your drawer. I just wanted you to get on something warm ASAP.” Zach said as he set the clothes down on the bench.

            Although Zach offered to help if Frankie needed it, Frankie managed to get dressed alone. After he was dressed he headed to the DR to ask for one of his pills.

            Shelby was coming from the bedroom and stopped when she saw Frankie on his way to the DR. Once he was inside and the door closed, she hurried to find Zach who was still in the bathroom.

            “Here, you forgot his bottles. I figured he would probably need them after that cold water.” She said, handing Zach the empty shampoo and orange juice bottles they had used before.

            “Shelby! That was nice of you!” Zach said, in stunned amazement.

            “I’m not a total monster!” she said with a laugh, “Like you said before, I don’t want anyone to lose body parts and be maimed for life for the sake of a game. He saw me in the hall but I hid the bottles. I figured it might embarrass him if he saw me with them. Was he on his way to get a pill?”

            “Yeah. I think I will get these ready in case he wants to use them. Thank you for remembering.” Zach said, taking the bottles from her and turning the water on in the sink to get it hot.

            When Frankie came out of the DR, Zach was waiting for him. He took Frankie to the bedroom and showed him the filled bottles that he had arranged for Frankie’s hands and feet. Frankie immediately laid down and put his feet on the larger bottle and sighed. “I am going to have to remember this trick in the winter in New York.”

            Shelby was called to the storage room. She laughed and told the guys that Big Brother wanted to give them a dinner for a treat. Since they had both still been competing at the time, she got to choose the menu. She had opted for Chinese and she said she hoped that was okay. The guys were thrilled, so she went off to the storage room to bring in the delivery.

            “Quick, before she comes back…I want to know why you threw that comp,” Frankie said, peering closely at Zach.

            “I didn’t…” Zach began, but he could see the disbelief on Frankie’s face, “Okay, I didn’t exactly throw it, but I did hasten the inevitable. You are a born competitor and I knew that even if it killed you, you would never stop. I would have rather won that comp than to face Shelby in the next, which you said is usually mental. I think you could beat her in that, but I’m not sure I can. I figured since there was no way I was going to win this first round, I should stop and save my energy for the next comp. And look,” he said, pulling up the legs of his sweatpants, exposing his bruised and swollen knees, “I wasn’t lying when I said it hit me in the front.”

            Shelby called for Zach, “I don’t think I can carry all this by myself! Could you help me?”

            Zach got up and ran to help her. They took the bags to the kitchen. Shelby wandered back into the bedroom and sat down on the bed next to Frankie’s.

            “Zach is going to fix a plate for you and for him, so he offered to fix mine too. He said we could all sit in here together and pretend it’s a picnic. You don’t mind if I’m here, do you? I hate to eat alone.”

            “Of course not! You are more than welcome to be here!” Frankie assured her.

            “Frankie, if I win this I am taking Zach with me, and I know if you win it, you will be taking him too, right?” She asked and Frankie assured her that was true. “And if I go to the jury, I am voting for him and you are too, correct?” Again Frankie agreed. “Okay, since we know that we can’t win the other over, I would like to ask you a question that has really been bothering me. Why did you get me a dress during that shopping spree?”

            Frankie gave her a small smile, “I told you, I don’t like people being left out. During my season there was a time when everybody turned against me. I didn’t have anyone to talk to. At home, I would have called my mom, or my sister, or one of my friends. In here once you are alone it’s almost like you don’t exist. It’s a horrible feeling. I don’t like for people to feel bad, so if there is something I can do to make things better, I do it.”

            She looked down at her hands in her lap. “Nobody else thought of me. They couldn’t wait to show me everything they had gotten, but they didn’t give me anything.” She looked up at him and gave him a small smile, “You really aren’t as bad as I thought you were.”

            Frankie laughed and she joined him, and that is how Zach found them when he brought in the filled plates.

\----------

            That night, after Shelby fell asleep, Frankie and Zach snuck off to the tearoom to drill. Frankie brought his make-up bag and they used the contents to study with. They went through the season, week by week. They studied what the HOH comp was, who won it, who was nominated, who won POV, was it used, who was there on the block on eviction night, and who went home.

            At one point Zach grew frustrated and wanted to give up. “I will never remember all of this! I’m screwed!”

            Frankie reached over and gripped Zach’s arm, so hard it was almost painful. “Look at me! You WILL remember this. You already know it; you lived it. We are just bringing it forward in your mind so you can find whatever you need quickly. You are not giving up. You are going to sit here until you get them all in order…even if it takes all night!”

            Zach’s eyes lost their panicked look. He took a deep breath and then nodded. Within a few hours, Zach knew all the facts. Frankie even quizzed him details in non-sequential order, and Zach answered all his questions correctly.

            Frankie grinned and then stretched. “You’ve got this, Zach! We don’t need to study anymore, let’s go to bed. Hopefully they won’t have the comp until the evening so you can get plenty of rest before it.”

            They held the comp early the next afternoon. Luckily Zach was already awake before they announced it.

            “I could hardly sleep last night. My nerves are shot!” he confided in Frankie shortly after the announcement.

            “There is no reason to be nervous. You practiced enough last night. You know everything,” Frankie soothed him.

            “What if…” Zach began, but Frankie cut him off.

            “What if nothing bad happens? What if you go out there and smash it? It is more likely than not that you are going to do great, unless you panic. So…don’t panic!” Frankie said with a grin.

            Zach took a couple of deep breaths and then nodded. “You’re right. I’ve got this.”

            It was an individual comp, so each of them was sent to different rooms. Frankie drew the bedroom, so he stretched out on his bed and took a nap since there wasn’t anything else for him to do.

            He woke up when Zach and Shelby entered the room. “Hey, no fair! We were out there busting our asses, freaking out with stress, and you are in here sleeping!” Zach declared with a laugh.

            “Who won?” Frankie asked, rubbing his eyes.

            “We don’t know yet,” Shelby said. “They are going to bring out a board with the slide bars; to make it exciting, I guess.”

            “What was the comp?” Frankie asked, sitting up, hugging his knees to his chest.

            “We had to put the two nominees on the block at the time of the eviction, for each eviction. We had to dig through stacks of cards to find the right ones and then do a wall climb to put them in place.” Shelby answered.

            “There were a lot of cards in the stacks that we didn’t need, so the first thing I did was pull those out and put them to the side,” Zach said.

            “I wish I would have thought of that!” exclaimed Shelby. “It took me forever to sort through them each time. And there were some weird ones, like a cartoon squirrel and Marsha from BBCAN.”

            “Marsha?” Zach asked.

            “The Moose,” Frankie and Shelby answered in unison.

            “Oh! I wondered why they had make-up and jewelry on it.”

            “How many times did you have to try before you got it right?” Shelby asked Zach.

            “Twice. Luckily I spotted the mistake right away. How many times for you?”

            She smiled, “I got them all right the first time.”

            “Great!” Zach said sarcastically, and fell backwards on the foot of Frankie’s bed. “I’m doomed!”

            Frankie and Shelby laughed at his melodramatic act. Big Brother’s voice came over the speaker and called Frankie to the DR.

            “Yay! Soon we will know who won!” Frankie said as he jumped out of bed and hurried to the DR.

            Within a half hour, they were all outside, standing in front of a board with Zach’s and Shelby’s names on it. Frankie quickly scanned the rock climbing wall that was still in the backyard.

            “Wow! That looks like it was a fun comp!” Frankie said.

            “Yeah, it was a laugh a minute,” Zach grumbled. And Shelby giggled at his answer.

            Production alerted Frankie that it was time to start. He read aloud the card he had been given and then slowly pulled back the bar that was hiding Shelby’s answer. Her time was 22:49. Then he slid back the bar showing Zach’s time. It was 16:34. Zach had won the second part of the final HOH.

            He grabbed Frankie in one arm, and Shelby in the other and they shared a group hug. Then they went into the house where they found that Production had brought them in dinner from a nationally-famous Italian restaurant. There were multiple containers offering varieties of foods from their menu.

            “So it’s just you and me that face off for the final spot, right Frankie?” Zach asked, twirling his fork in the Fettuccini Alfredo on his plate.

            The three of them had filled their plates at the counter and were sitting at the mini table together.

            “Yes,” Shelby answered before Frankie could, “The only way I will make it to the final two is if the winner takes me.” She gave a pointed look at Zach.

            Zach looked down at his plate, “What do we have to do before then?”

            “We have to have a brunch and discuss everything that has happened this season. It is filmed and shown as a filler show,” Frankie answered while breaking his piece of garlic bread.

            “What the hell?!! I can’t remember what happened two weeks ago, but I am supposed to remember the whole season?!!” Zach said in a panicked voice.

            Frankie chuckled. “It’s scripted. We have to talk about everything, even events that happened with the other Houseguests. We might not have even witnessed these things.”

            “Ooh! Scripted? How fun!” Shelby said, excitedly.

            “Okay, what else?” Zach asked.

            “Nothing,” Frankie said, stirring the salad dressing into his salad with his fork.

            “Nothing?” Zach asked, “But the finale isn’t for almost a week!”

            “We just hang around and wait. The backyard will be open for most of the time. It will be great,” Frankie said, lifting a forkful of salad to his mouth.

            “Ugh. Sounds horrible!” Zach whined.

            “After all the stress this summer, I think it sounds lovely!” Shelby said.

\----------

            The next day they filmed the brunch episode. Cue cards were placed around to give them guidance on the topics Production wanted covered, and a few of the main points to hit. It wasn’t as scripted as they had thought it would be, but Frankie and Zach had no problem working with what they had been given as they easily bounced the conversation back and forth. Shelby had a few problems with it, especially when she was working with Frankie. They had not had many conversations in the house so they had never developed the ease of exchanging ideas. Frankie ultimately had to take the lead in those instances. They filmed for a couple of hours before Production was satisfied that they had enough usable footage.

            The food for the staged brunch was removed and fresh food brought in for them. They finally got to sit down and eat.

            “I’m glad they didn’t make us eat that stuff that was on table,” Zach exclaimed. “It looked so gross by the time we were over here at the Memory Wall talking about the team twist.”

            “I wish I would have done better coming up with lines to say,” Shelby said as she stabbed at her eggs.

            “Nonsense,” Frankie said. “You did great. Improv is hard for everyone, especially if you have never done it before. I especially liked the part where you were talking about Pandora’s Box. You were the only one who could have told that story and you handled it amazingly well.”

            Shelby beamed, blushed, and thanked Frankie, before taking a sip from her mimosa to cover her embarrassment.

            “I just don’t understand why they had you come down the steps like you were in the HOH room. Everybody already knows it is closed for the season, don’t they?” Zach asked Frankie.

            “No. Only live feeders know. Casual viewers, the ones that just watch the episodes, have no idea.” Frankie said.

            “I don’t really understand the whole point of this filler show,” Zach said. “Why not have the finale instead?”

            “It’s marketing. They have the first episode of ‘Survivor’ on and then the finale of ‘Big Brother’ on right after. It is a big ratings night for CBS,” Frankie answered.

            “You are not allowed to talk about Production,” said the booming voice of Big Brother.

            Shelby got the giggles. “You got in trouble,” she said in a sing-song voice.

            Frankie laughed, and answered her back in the same sing-song voice, “You’ve had too many mimosas!” Shelby giggled harder at that.

            Frankie turned to Zach and said, “Also on the filler episode they show the beginning of the first comp of the last three.”

            “Stop that!” ordered Big Brother.

            Shelby totally lost it at that announcement. She laughed so hard she was doubled over and rested her head on the table as she laughed.

            Frankie and Zach exchanged grins and continued eating their brunch.

\----------

            Downtime is not uncommon in the Big Brother house; but during the season when downtime happens, there is always something to focus on: the next HOH, Veto, or eviction. The end of season downtime is different. There isn’t even a way to study for the last competition because it is based on statements the jurors make while in the jury.

            Frankie and Shelby had no trouble adapting to the downtime; they spent a great deal of their time sunbathing together and talking about the people, places, and things that had been trending in pop culture right before they entered the house. They treated their time like a mini vacation. Zach, on the other hand, was jumping out of his skin. He spent most of his time lifting weights, running on the treadmill, and riding the stationary bikes. Frankie played a lot of pool with him in the evenings. It helped when Production gave them Jenga and Play-Doh.

            During this last week, Production brought in food from fast food restaurants for most of their meals. This eliminated a great deal of the time they had previously spent in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning up. Frankie was pleased about that, and was also pleased that he could order items that were low carb. He was a bit worried that he had picked up weight over the summer and that his tailored suit that had been made for his pre-Big Brother body wouldn’t fit his post-Big Brother body.

            The last night they all went into the hot tub together at Frankie’s suggestion. He could tell that Zach was extremely anxious by his movements and by the way he was talking almost non-stop. Frankie hoped the hot tub would relax him, and once Zach was relaxed, Frankie would be able to relax too.

            After a while, when the hot tub didn’t seem to be working it’s magic on Zach, Shelby excused herself and got out. She said she was going to grab a shower and then go to bed.

            “I ran her off, didn’t I?” Zach asked.

            “I don’t know. Probably. You are pretty hyper tonight,” Frankie answered, honestly.

            Zach sighed. “You probably want to escape too, don’t you?”

            “Nope. I want to help you relax so we can all face tomorrow fresh and rested,” Frankie said and he reached down under the water and grabbed one of Zach’s feet.

            “What are you doing?” Zach asked, with a touch of panic in his voice as he felt Frankie’s thumb dig into the sole of his foot.

            “I am trying to do reflexology, although I don’t know that much about it. If I can find the right spots to rub, it should help settle you down.” Frankie said as he began kneading each area of Zach’s foot. “Lean your head back and try to relax.”

            After a time, Frankie released Zach’s foot and picked up the other one and repeated the process. Zach had finally stopped his ceaseless chattering and was visibly relaxing.

            Once Frankie had determined it was enough, he lowered Zach’s foot back in the water. Zach opened his eyes and whined.

            Frankie laughed and stood up. “Sorry but it’s getting late. I want to take a last walk around the yard before bed. The doors will be locked tomorrow, and when we see it again, it won’t be the same.”

            “Wait, I’ll come with you!” Zach said jumping up.

            They grabbed a couple of towels and walked to the furthest end of the yard and looked back at the house.

            “It’s been a hell of a summer,” Frankie said. “So weird to think this, but I’m going to miss this place.”

            “Not weird. I feel the same way,” Zach said, then he reached out and grabbed Frankie’s arm in a panicky grip, “I don’t want this to be over.”

            “It’s going to be fine!” Frankie said, patting Zach’s clutching hand. “Just think of happy things, like Donny always said he did when he was stressing. But instead of cake, think about your guy. You will get to see him tomorrow, right?”

            “Yeah, he will be here for the finale,” Zach said, easing his death grip on Frankie’s arm and nibbling his lip. “What about you? Do you think you can fix your relationship?”

            “No. It wasn’t meant to be. I was over it before I got here. But, my happy thought is that I am looking forward to seeing my family again. I hope they are all here in California. I want to spend a week or so with them, and then back home. Autumn in New York is amazing!”

            They began to make their way back up to the house; stopping every once in a while to point out spots and share memories. Eventually they came to the door; Zach slid it open and allowed Frankie to walk through first. Zach went into the kitchen to fix a bowl of cereal for himself; Frankie went to the bathroom to take a shower. Later, when Frankie was leaving the bathroom, he and Zach met in the hallway as Zach was on his way to shower.

            “Are you headed to bed now?” Zach asked.

            “Yeah. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Frankie said.

            Zach reached over and pulled Frankie into a tight hug. “It’s our last time to say ‘goodnight’ inside this house. I want you to know something. Tomorrow, if by some miracle I win…”

            Frankie patted his back and said, “It’s okay. I already know. I’ve known for a long time.”

            Zach pulled away, with a startled look on his face. “You know?!!”

            Frankie gave a small laugh, “Of course I know! It’s been obvious for a while that the two of you are working together.”

            “Oh,” Zach said, his face relaxing, “Yeah. Yeah, we have been working together for a while. Glad you understand.”

            “I do. It’s just a game. However, if I win, I will be taking you.”

            Zach grinned, “So you think you have a better chance beating me with the jury than you have with her?”

            “No. But if I have to take the chance on someone beating me, I would rather it be you than her.” He patted Zach’s shoulder and moved away from him. “Goodnight, Zach. Try to get some sleep.”

            “Goodnight, Frankie,”

\----------

            Production let them sleep in a bit the next morning, but this wasn’t a treat for Frankie. He had his schedule all worked out mentally and because of the extra sleep, he felt he was going to have to rush through everything. Zach was sitting at the kitchen counter, eating a bowl of cereal and Frankie was at the stove making an egg-white omelet when Shelby discovered ants in the bread. She was livid. Her nerves were bad and it was making her stomach upset. She had planned on eating dry toast with a cup of tea to help settle it.

            “I just want to know what kind of animal leaves the twist tie off of the bread! It’s very simple: take it off, remove some bread, and put it back on!” She snapped.

            “Don’t look at me,” Frankie said. “This is egg whites and soy cheese. Besides, I don’t eat white bread.”

            “Zach?” she turned on him. “What about you?”

            “Froot Loops,” he said, showing her his bowl.

            “What about last night? Did you eat anything before bed?” She interrogated him, with one hand on her hip.

            “Yep. Froot Loops.” He said, and then laughed. “Come to think of it, I do remember seeing you eating a turkey sandwich yesterday afternoon. Could you have been the animal that didn’t put the twist tie back on the bread?”

            She threw her arms up and uttered a small guttural sound through clenched teeth, and then she stormed off to the bedroom.

            Frankie slid his omelet onto a plate, grabbed a fork from the drawer and walked over to the counter. He sat down next to Zach. “That wasn’t very nice, you know.”

            “I know. But it was funny.” Zach said, laughing.

            “Everybody’s nerves are on edge, and we have a lot to do today. We have to pack, clean up the place, and get ready for the show. Could you please go make nice with her so we can have some peace? Take her in a cup of tea and a pack of crackers. They will soothe her stomach as well as dry toast.” Frankie suggested.

            “Fine,” Zach said, getting up and taking his bowl to the sink. “I’ll be nice, but only on one condition.”

            “What’s that?” Frankie asked with a raised eyebrow.

            Zach leaned over the counter and said quietly, “That you admit it was funny.”

            Frankie’s lips quirked a bit, “Okay, it was a little funny,” he admitted in a whisper.

            Zach laughed, “I knew it!” He gathered up the supplies and went off to tend to Shelby.

\----------

            The day had passed by in a whirl of activities. Luckily Zach had managed to calm Shelby down so there were no more scenes. The guys were in the bathroom making their final checks in the mirror when Production announced that they had to be on the couches in five minutes.

            “I love your suit, Frankie!” Zach said with a slight grin.

            “Yeah, thanks. I didn’t know how long they were going to make us continue with the Zankie colors.” Frankie was wearing a pink button down shirt with a blue suit that had a tiny pink rosebud pattern. “Speaking of suits, did you have that one made for you? It’s a perfect fit.”

            Zach was wearing a simple, yet elegant black suit with a white button down shirt, open at the neck. “Nope. I bought it off the rack. I did have a few alternations made to it though.”

            Frankie examined the material and the stitching, “Very good workmanship. This is very good quality.”

            Zach laughed, “Thank you. I will make sure I pass on your compliments to my tailor!”

            Shelby rushed into the room. “Come on guys! We have to be in our places!”

            “Hey, wow! You look really great, Shelby!” Zach said, grinning at her.

            “Thanks! Frankie gave me this dress,” she said.

            “Frankie? How did Frankie…” Zach began, before Shelby cut him off, laughing at his confusion. “It doesn’t matter now, come on!”

            They all hurried into the living room and took their assigned seats on the couches. Zach and Shelby on one; Frankie, as the former HOH, on the other.

            Julie came on the large screen and greeted them and they could hear the live audience in the studio behind her. She spoke to them a bit and then told them she would come back a little later, and the TV screen went dark again. They could still hear the live audience through the walls.

            A long time seemed to pass before they were directed by Production to go out into the backyard. There was a huge scale set up; it was a familiar sight to anyone who was a fan of ‘Big Brother’. Shelby was told to take a seat off camera, and Frankie and Zach were instructed to step up on the scale. Frankie stuck his hand out to shake Zach’s. Zach took Frankie’s hand, but instead of shaking it, he used it to pull Frankie into his arms. They shared a quick hug, and then stepped on their own sides of the scales.

            “Congratulations Frankie and Zach!” they could hear Julie’s voice over the speaker, “We are about to begin part three of the competition to determine who will be the last HOH of the season!” She explained that she was going to read them quotes from the jury that had two possible answers. They were to choose which answer they believed the juror said. There were a total of seven questions and the one who answered the most questions correctly would be the final HOH.

            Frankie began to sweat a bit. This was basically a huge crap shoot, and Frankie was never one to enjoy playing craps. He took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind.

            The first two questions they both answered correctly. Frankie had had to guess the answers, and he wondered if Zach did too, or if he knew the jurors better than Frankie did. He got an answer to that on the next question. It was Alex’s. Frankie missed it and Zach got it correct. They both answered correctly on questions four and five, but on the sixth question, which was Victor’s, Zach missed it and Frankie answered correctly. They were in a tie going into the seventh question. They both answered it incorrectly.

            “It looks like we are going to have to go to a tie-breaking question,” Julie announced. Frankie made a low groan and he could hear Zach giggle over it. “If you will please retrieve your clipboards located in the shelf, under the dais, we will begin,” she instructed.

            The guys pulled out the clipboards and uncapped their markers. “The person with the closest answer, without going over, will be the final HOH. The question is: How long, in minutes, did ‘The Wall’ competition last?” she asked.

            Zach remembered that he had looked at the microwave clock that day, before and after the comp. He knew he would have to deduct some off of that for the instruction and demonstration time. He quickly did the math in his head and wrote down his answer.

            Frankie froze. He remembered being told that the comp had lasted almost six hours, but he didn’t remember the exact time that Production had said. He always had a great memory, but the stress was causing it to fail him. He racked his brain trying to remember.

            “Frankie, we need an answer,” Julie said.

            Frankie startled, realizing that she had only said his name which meant Zach had already answered. He quickly did the math up in the corner of the board, and wrote his final answer large in the center of the board. He turned it around to show Julie.

            Frankie’s board read 350, and Zach’s board read 335.

            “The correct answer to how many minutes did ‘The Wall’ competition last is…346 minutes. Which means…Zach…you are the winner of the final HOH of the summer!”

            The scale lowered so Zach could step off. Shelby ran to him and he gave her a hug. He kept his arm around her as they walked over to Frankie’s side of the scale to wait for him to be lowered back down. When he made it down and stepped off, Zach scooped him into a hug with his free arm and the three of them walked back to the house together.

            Once inside, Production instructed Frankie and Shelby to each take a seat in the nomination chairs and for Zach to remain standing, facing them. The show was on a commercial break and it was almost over.

            They could hear the sound of the applause from the audience clearly which meant the big screen was about to come on. Then Julie appeared.

            “Congratulations again, Zach. Now you must vote to evict one of the two remaining Houseguests, Frankie or Shelby. As a reminder, once Zach has made his vote, the evicted Houseguest has only moments to say goodbye, gather his or her belongings, and walk out the front door. Okay Zach, you may cast your vote to evict now.”

            “Wow, Julie. This was so unexpected. I wish I would have had time to come up with a speech.” He suddenly grinned, “Roses are red…”

            The audience laughed and burst into applause. Zach’s smile broadened. He gave Julie a little nod, and then turned to face Frankie and Shelby.

 


	16. Chapter Sixteen

            Zach turned to Frankie and Shelby who were sitting on the nomination chairs, and his smile grew even larger. After a moment, he began to speak:

“Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Frankie, I’d have to be crazy

To take you to the final two!

Shelby, we’ve been together

Almost since day one.

I really hope that you’ve had fun!

But now it’s time for you to get—

‘Cause as everyone knows—

I’m a lunatic!”

 

            “What?!!!” Shelby screamed, jumping to her feet. And Frankie, in his shock, joined her.

            “Zach you have to make your vote official,” Julie stated.

            “I vote to evict Shelby,” Zach said with a grin.

            “It’s official, Shelby, you have been evicted from the ‘Big Brother’ house,” Julie announced.

            “How could you?! We had this all planned! We were the ‘Dream Destroyers’!” Shelby yelled in anger.

            “Yes, in this game we were the ‘Dream Destroyers’,” Zach agreed and then put his arm around Frankie’s shoulders, “But Frankie and I are ‘Zankie for life, Baby’!”

            “But…you said that we were going to give Frankie what he deserved!” Shelby argued.

            “And we did!” Zach agreed, “You said you watched our season. If you had paid attention to it, you would know that what I always thought Frankie deserved was to be in one of these chairs on finale night. I couldn’t have done it without your help. Thank you so much!”

            “Shelby, it is now time to leave the house,” Julie reminded her.

            Shelby threw up her hands and made a guttural noise in her throat, and then turned and stomped out of the house.

            Zach giggled.

            “I’m not sure what just happened. I thought you were going to take her,” Frankie said, with a confused look on his face.

            “I know you did! I tried to tell you last night in the hallway, but you wouldn’t let me. You and I had a final two; why would you think I would go against it? Especially for someone who wrote in that post that they wanted to see you on fire?”

            “But the two of you were always together. I just assumed…” Frankie started, but words failed him.

            “You told me to get in good with her right at the beginning of the season, so I did. Then I figured out how I could use her to get us to the final two and it worked. I’m kind of surprised it did, but it did. She was this year’s Victoria, except she is smart and could win comps,” Zach explained as he steered Frankie back over to the chairs to sit down.

            Production came over the speaker and told them that they would have about ten minutes before they were back on.

            “So…wait, I’m still trying to understand this. You planned this early in the season, and you stuck with it?” Frankie asked.

            “Yeah,” Zach said simply, while nodding.

            “Wow, that’s amazing, Zach! You have really changed! The first time you were on here, you couldn’t help but self sabotage. I’m really proud of you. And grateful too.”

            Zach smiled, “You’re proud of me? Really?”

            “I am,” Frankie answered. “Your new boyfriend has done a lot to help you mature. I am honestly looking forward to meeting him later. You are going to introduce us, right?”

            Zach grinned and looked down at his hands. “Do you really want to meet him, or are you just saying that?”

            “No, I mean it,” Frankie said, surprising himself with the admission, “He must be really special.”

            Zach nodded without looking up. “He is. He is just the greatest person I have ever met in my life.”

            Frankie shifted slightly in his seat at the pain that washed over him with that wording, and then reached up to touch his hair to make sure it was still laying correctly. Zach looked up and spotted the motion; frowning he asked, “Hey Frankie, I don’t know much about make-up, but the stuff on your eyes, it’s supposed to match, isn’t it?”

            Frankie’s hand went to his face, “What?!!” he said, and jumped out of his seat and ran to the bathroom. Zach was hot on his heels.

            When Zach entered the bathroom, Frankie was leaning over the sink, peering intently into the mirror. Zach walked up behind him and looked at Frankie’s face reflected in the mirror.

            “I don’t see it! Where is it?” Frankie asked in a panicky voice.

            Zach slipped his right arm around Frankie’s back, and with his left hand he reached out to touch the mirror. He pecked the mirror between the eyes of Frankie’s reflection. “There. I can’t believe you can’t see that!”

            Frankie leaned in even closer to the mirror and studied the region Zach had indicated. “I still don’t see it. What are you seeing that I’m not?”

            “The man that I love. You said you wanted to meet him…there he is.” Zach said, and partially hid his face behind Frankie’s shoulder as he felt the blush spread across his face.

            Frankie leaned away from the mirror, “Be serious, Zach! This is no time to be joking around!” he scolded.

            Zach pulled his left arm across Frankie’s chest and grabbed onto it with his right hand. “I’m not joking, Frankie. It’s you. It’s always been you. The night that Victor had everyone hold their arm up if they were single, I was so shocked that you raised yours, I forgot to raise mine. You assumed I had someone, and I let you believe it. Anything I ever said about him was really me talking about you. I knew if I just came to you and told you that I was sorry for all the bullshit I had said and done, you wouldn’t believe me because I’ve said it all before. I thought maybe if instead of telling you I changed, I showed you that I had—that I could be open and loyal and mature, that maybe you would believe that I had changed and that I really am sorry. With all of my heart, I am sorry.

            “You loved me once, I know you did. If I had been the kind of man you needed, I know you wouldn’t have left me and gotten with someone else. I hated him, and I hated you for loving him, but mostly I hated myself because I was the one who was the cause of the mess. He got to live the life that was supposed to be mine, with MY Frankie.

            “Something in me died when you left me, and I didn’t even know it until I got the contract to come back on this show. At first I said ‘no’ because I had no interest in coming back here. Then I saw your signature and it was like—oh, it’s hard to explain. It’s like here when we watch someone’s picture change from color to black and white, only it was in reverse. Just seeing your signature on that contract made all the color come back into the world. I hadn’t even known it was missing until it came back. Our time here in the house together will be over in just a few minutes. Please don’t send me back into that black and white world. If you can never love me again, could you please at least be my friend? I just can’t bear the idea of losing you all over again…I just can’t…” Zach had his face buried in Frankie’s shoulder as he spoke.

            “Shut up, Zach!” Frankie interrupted.

            Zach nodded against Frankie’s shoulder and let go of him and backed away. Then he felt Frankie grab the hair on the back of his head, and he startled and looked up. There were tears on Frankie’s face.

            “Shut up and kiss me!” Frankie whispered, and pulled Zach into his arms.

            The kiss started out as soft and sweet, but it didn’t stay that way. By the time Frankie managed to regain some sense of time and space, he found that he had been pushed up against the wall and Zach was softly biting on his neck. “We have to stop,” he said, breathlessly.

            “No, please, don’t make me stop!” Zach whined against his neck.

            “We have to. The cameras will be back on us soon.” Frankie insisted.

            Zach raised his head and looked around for a second and then gave a small laugh. “I forgot where we were.”

            Frankie nodded, “I did too, but we have to pull it together and finish the show.”

            Zach leaned in and kiss Frankie’s forehead, and then rested his own forehead against Frankie’s. “I lied to you about something in the game.”

            “It doesn’t matter,” Frankie began, but Zach cut him off.

            “It matters. I told you that people were gossiping about us and so we should hug a few times a day. Nobody was gossiping. I just wanted to be able to hug you. Are you mad?”

            Frankie laughed, “Nope. And besides, some of them might have been because I had a few tell me how nice it was to see that we were still so close. I do have a question though—that day in the storage room when you were so angry with me, what was that about?”

            Zach ducked his head and buried his face in Frankie’s neck. “Jealousy and fear. You looked so good in that Speedo, and all the guys were looking at you and I was scared you would choose one of them. I worried most about Victor because of the your dancing together every morning and I know you admired him so much on his season. I was afraid you would get into a showmance with him and I knew that I would not be able to deal with that. I held it in as long as I could and then I blew up. Right in the middle of it, I knew I was sounding like an ass, I just couldn’t seem to shut up.”

            “At one point during it, I thought you were going to grab me and kiss me. I wasn’t wrong, was I?” Frankie asked, while stroking the back of Zach’s head.

            “Frankie, I wanted to grab you and kiss you ever second of every day we have been in this house, but yes, I did have to fight the urge really hard at that moment.” Zach admitted.

            “You know that was all in your mind, don’t you? If I ever have a choice, I will always choose you. I thought you knew that.”

            “Did you? Alex chose Shelby to be in here because her sister couldn’t come on the show. Did they give you a choice of partners?” Zach asked timidly.

            Frankie sighed. “Yeah, they did. You or Caleb.”

            “And you picked me.”

            “I picked you.” Frankie ran his hand up and down Zach’s back as he answered.

            “Did he know?”

            “Caleb?” Frankie asked.

            “No. You know… _him_. Did he know that you had a choice and you chose me?”

            “Yes, he knew.” Frankie said, and his muscles slightly stiffened.

            “Is that why you broke up?” Zach asked, a bit scared to push Frankie this far, but he had to know.

            Frankie took a deep breath and then said, “Yes.”

            “Even after all that horrible mess I caused, you still picked me.” Zach said in awe.

            “Yes, I still picked you,” Frankie said, squeezing Zach tighter.

            Zach raised his head off Frankie’s shoulder and used the sleeve of his suit jacket to wipe the tears from his face. “So, I’ve heard New York is really pretty this time of year.”

            Frankie smiled and tilted his head to the side, “It really is. Autumn is just about the most beautiful time of year in New York. You should come and visit me and see for yourself.”

            Zach nodded, “Yeah, I think I would like to do that. I really can’t stay long though, maybe about six or seven…decades. Would that be okay?”

            Frankie gave a little laugh, “Yes that would be very okay!”

            Zach used his other sleeve to wipe the tears from Frankie’s face. “I do have this tiny, little dog…” he said with a grin.

            “He is the size of a small car! But yes, Tiger can come too.” Frankie laughed.

            “Well, I’m doing pretty good getting these ‘yes’ answers from you. I wonder if I could maybe get just one more.” Zach said biting at the edge of his lip.

\----------

            “Let’s welcome our final member of the jury who was just evicted a short time ago.” Julie said, and Shelby walked out on the stage and took the last chair in the front row.

            “Zach won and picked Frankie,” Shelby told the jury.

            “You should have seen that one coming,” Jace commented, “We saw the Veto meeting when DaVonne came to the Jury House. We all knew he would do that when we saw him save Frankie with the Veto when they were both on the block. You should have voted Zach out then.”

            Julie put her hand to her ear and gave a small nod. She turned to the audience. “I have just been informed there has been some kind of incident that occurred inside the house just moments ago.” Everyone fell silent. The huge screen came on and showed the bathroom inside the ‘Big Brother’ house. At the bottom of the screen were the words, “Three minutes ago…”

\----------

            “Well, I’m doing pretty good getting these ‘yes’ answers from you. I wonder if I could maybe get just one more.” Zach said biting at the edge of his lip. He reached inside his pocket and pulled something out. “This isn’t a ‘blue box from Tiffany’s’, it is the twist tie from Shelby’s bread. I’m the animal that left it open.” He gave a little laugh and then bent down on one knee and took Frankie’s hand. “Frankie James Michael Grande Marchione, I love you with all that I have, all that I am, and all that I ever will be. I never loved anyone but you in my entire life and I know I handled it horribly, but if you give me another chance, I swear I will spend every day of the rest of my life proving my love for you. Will you…” he paused and took a shaky breath, “Will you marry me?”

            Frankie had his free hand over his mouth, holding back the sobs that were threatening to come out. He could only nod his answer.

            Zach slid the handmade ring on Frankie’s finger. “You know, like Julie says, it’s not official unless you say it.”

            Frankie took his hand from his mouth and nodded. He managed to get the word, “Yes” out before he began sobbing. Zach scooped Frankie up in a hug and Frankie wrapped his legs around Zach’s waist and they clung to each other.

\----------

            Frankie gave Zach a light smack on the back and stepped back down to the floor. “Why did you have to do this now?” he said, laughing through his tears. “We have to face those cameras in just a few minutes, and I’m sure I look like a complete mess!”

            Zach said, “No, you’re beautiful,” and kissed Frankie on the forehead before reluctantly releasing him.

            Frankie turned to the mirror and squawked. “It’s worse than I thought!” He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose, then grabbed a couple more to dab at the tear tracks on his cheeks. Zach reached for a wash cloth, got it wet with some cold water, and laid it on his face. Frankie hurriedly grabbed some face powder out of his bag and began applying to his cheeks to try to hide the redness.

            “This isn’t working! I’m still all red and blotchy,” Frankie complained in a panicked voice.

            “You look perfect,” Zach said.

            “How would you know? You have your face covered; you can’t even see me!”

            “Don’t have to. You always look perfect.” Zach said. He pulled the wash cloth off his face and looked at Frankie. “See—I’m looking at you; you look perfect.”

            Frankie smiled and put the powder back in his make-up bag. He put his arms around Zach and laid his head on Zach’s shoulder. “I give up. There isn’t time to properly fix everything, so I am just going to have to go out there looking like this.”

            Before Zach could tell Frankie again how beautiful Frankie was to him, they heard the studio audience applauding, screaming, and whistling. It was much louder than any audience noises they had ever heard before inside the house.

            “Fuck! What the hell? Do you think that is for Shelby?” he asked.

            “I don’t know. Maybe the jury just came in.”

            They heard Julie’s voice come over the speakers, “Guys! Frankie, Zach, could you come to the living room please?”

            Startled, they both took off running to the living room. Julie was on the big screen, and she had tears in her eyes. Frankie involuntarily took a step back and his hand went to his chest. He couldn’t imagine why Julie would be crying. Zach grabbed Frankie’s waist to steady him, and Frankie could tell by the way Zach clutched at his waist that Zach was startled too.

            “Guys…” she started, but had to pause to get composure, “We saw.” Suddenly, there was a split screen, with Julie on one side and a picture on the other. It was a picture of Zach proposing to Frankie from just a few moments ago. “That applause you heard was for you.” The audience began clapping again, and Production turned the cameras to the audience so that Frankie and Zach could see that the entire room was filled with people who were giving them a standing ovation. Some of the people were crying, some were laughing, and all were clapping as hard as they could.

            Someone must have handed Julie a tissue because when the camera came back to her, she was dabbing at her eyes. “Well, you ‘froot loop dinguses’, nobody saw that one coming!” she said with a laugh.

            “I did!” Donny yelled, and a camera went to him. “There was this one day they had a huge screaming match in the storage room. Zach was screaming at Frankie and Frankie was screaming right back at Zach. A couple hours later, they were in the bedroom and Zach was giving Frankie a back massage, I knew right then. Nobody screams that loud and forgives that fast unless there is a whole lot of love behind it. I watched them fall in love with each other the first time on Season 16, and I got to watch them fall in love with each other the second time on Season 20. I figured they ain’t dumb people. This time they were going to grab on to it. That’s why I made sure to wrangle a wedding invitation from them. They promised to share some ‘happy cake’ with me the next time they had it. I figure that will be their wedding. Don’t forget your old friend, Donny Thompson, when you are making out that guest list!”

            Zach was almost double-over laughing. “You got it, Donny! Your name will be the first on the list, I promise! The way you kept on about ‘happy cake’, Frankie and I were getting a bit worried about you!”

            The camera went back to Julie. “Well, since we are claiming spots on the wedding invitation list…”

            Frankie laughed, “I’ve got you, Julie!”

            Julie smiled, “Well, show us the ring! We couldn’t see it very well.”

            “Oh, it’s…” Zach said, and started to laugh, “It’s not really a real ring yet. I mean, of course I’m going to buy one…I just had to make do.”

            “We know, Zach. We heard that it is the twist tie from the bread. We would still like to see it,” Julie said with a gentle smile.

            Frankie grinned and proudly held his hand up to the camera in the living room and he could see it show up on the large TV screen for the audience to see. There was a chorus of “Awws” and applause from the audience. When the camera went back to Julie, she was dabbing at her eyes furiously. “It’s a lovely ring; really beautiful,” she finally managed to say. She cleared her throat and squared her shoulders. “I guess on ‘Big Brother’ we should have all known to ‘Expect the Unexpected’! When we return, the jury has some questions to ask of our two finalists, and later we will have the live vote to determine the winner of ‘Big Brother 20’! You don’t want to miss it.”

            When the show went to commercial, Julie appeared back on their screen. “Of all the relationships I have witnessed being born on this show, Zankie has always been my favorite. I’m so happy for you both! Best wishes for a long and happy life together! Now, I have to go fix my make-up before the commercials end.”

            Frankie and Zach sat down in the nomination chairs to wait.

            “You know, I have no idea what kind of speech to make now. How am I supposed to tell them not to vote for you?” Frankie said with a small laugh.

            Zach smiled. “It doesn’t even matter to me who they vote for. Whether I get first place or second place it’s irrelevant. On my very first DR for 16, I said that I wasn’t going to leave without the grand prize,” Zach picked up Frankie’s hand and kissed it. “This time I am.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if you are disappointed that I didn't declare who won-- but I did that on purpose. I hate when I watch an entire season of 'Big Brother' and the person I want to win, doesn't. With my story, nobody has to be disappointed. You get to choose who won. (My vote is for Zankie!)
> 
> Thank you for taking time to read my story! And a huge "Thank you!!!" to my Twitter twin. You know I couldn't have done this without you constantly nagging...uh, I mean, encouraging me! I can never thank you enough for all your support, and for helping me keep on track and not freak out over every little thing.


End file.
